From the States

Aizwal

Chennai

Guwahati

Jammu

New Delhi

National Federation of Blind protests

The Mizoram Government will be introducing various schemes for rehabilitation of disabled persons in the State. A R Kohli, Directorate of Health Services and Social welfare department has urged all village council chiefs to submit the details of the totally disabled persons in their respective areas.

Depending upon the disability, the government plans to distribute necessary kits to all physically challenged people across the State. Besides this, the social welfare department has intensified the National Program of Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (NPRPD). Under this program, state and district resource centres have been established under three prominent non-government institutes.

The department has also proposed to open rehabilitation centres across the region for which comprehensive planning is being done by the government. The officials stated that the proposed centres would look after these physically challenged persons and try to generate employment for them.

Source: Goverment to work on rehabilitation of disabled persons. The Sentinel, Guwahati, 6th January 2006.

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The disabled showcase their talents

Kendriya (22) had won a gold medal at the cartoon contest in the South Zone Abilympics held last year. A student of Loyola Collage, she is excellent with her pencil and brush. She wants to take part in the photo contest this year.

The event, being organized by Vidya Sagar, formerly knows as the Spastics Society and the Rotaract Club of Vepery, will focus primarily on the vocational abilities of disabled persons and highlight their skills as well as motivate them to become independent through employment.

In a Press meet organized to announce the Regional Abilympics, Dipti Bhatia, coordinator, Inclusion Cell of Vidya Sagar, said that what disabled persons cannot do is obvious, but what they can needs to be shown to others. The South Zone Abilympics will have a total of 31 events with a participation of as many as 350 people from the 4 southern states.

The participations will be 15 years and above and will fall under five categories that includes loco motor, speech, hearing, visual and intellectually challenged. The 31 events will be based on Vocational, Leisure and Living skills. The winners of the South Zone events will take part at the National level competitions to he held in New Delhi in November, 2006.

Those triumphant there will represent the nation at the 7th International Abilympics (IA) at Shizuoka, Japan. The participations who will be selected for the International event are likely to go through a training session in the capital before they fly to Japan.

Source: An opportunity for the disabled to shine. Indian Express, Chennai, 5th January, 2006.

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Poor facilities for the blind

January 4 is the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, who developed the Braille system for the visually impaired. Since then new developments have further expanded the scope of education for those without sight. However, the scene in Assam remains dismal due to lack of governmental or organizational support.

Dilip Kumar Das, a visually impaired teacher said that there are several schools for the visually impaired in the State, including one at Jorhat under the Social Welfare Department and another at Guwahati that has been provincialized under the Education department. The rest of the schools face a difficult future because of lack of infrastructure and adequate funding.

According to him there are close to 65,000 visually impaired people in Assam. There is a dearth of specialized skill training for these people. In the area of educational opportunities and in employment, the visually impaired require more support from the Government. Social attention on the needs of the visually is yet to become a reality in Assam, feels Dr. Harsha Bhattacharjee of Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya.

Improvement in educational opportunities can only take place when society treats them as equals. Dr. Bhattacharjee was of the view that the Braille system should be popularized among the visually impaired because of its obvious advantages.

Better education would lead to a marked difference in the status of the visually impaired. Besides, those involved in education of the visually impaired should start considering the use of modern technology and computers. He feels social organizations could play a role in making educational opportunities available to a large number of visually impaired.

In Assam, there is a growing divide between the visually impaired of urban areas and rural areas. According to Sister Shiny of the Jyoti Niketan, there is a great need for the Government to help the visually impaired living in villages.

Source: Poor education set-up for visually impaired. Assam, Tribune, Guwahati, 4th January 2006.

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The visually challenged pay a tribute to Louis Braille

Transport Minister Mangat Ram Sharma was impressed by the captivating cultural performance by the visually challenged on the celebration of the 198th birth anniversary of Louis Braille at the residential institute for the blind in Roopnagar.

He said that they would be included as a part of this year's Republic Day cultural contingent to project their talent and skills. He said that nothing could have been a better tribute to the inventor of script for the blind, Louis Braille, than to make an effort to propagate the skills and endowed capabilities of the visually challenged so that they become a contributory human resource.

The Minister also recommended to the social welfare department to double the intake capacity of the residential institute at Roopnagar besides setting up of a library. The residents of the institute, on the occasion demanded reservation in Government jobs, raising of their pocket money from Rs. 40 per month to Rs. 300 per month and permanent employment instead of contractual ones. Among others, Director Garaes and secretary Red Cross Society Jammu were also present on the occasion.

Source: Visually challenged troupe to perform on R-Day: Sharma. The Excelsior, Jammu, 5th January 2006.

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National Federation of Blind protests

Activists of the National federation of Blind staged a demonstration to highlight their problems and also to seek reservation of jobs in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

They demanded a special recruitment drive to clear the backlog of vacancies reserved for the visually impaired, and also protection of service benefits for employees working in the private sector, provision for double retirement benefits for those opting for VRS and promotion for those working in different PSUs so that they could live a normal, independent life. They also threatened to intensify their movement if the Government failed to fulfill its promises made in the past.

Source: Blind demanded job quota in NREGS. National Herald, New Delhi, 6th January 2006.

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Delhi Government turns a blind eye to the blind..

The Delhi government has turned its back to the education needs of the blind. Forget about the talking books, reading machines and computers with speech software as proposed by the human resource development Minister Arjun Singh in March 2005.

The students are yet to get Braille books after the curriculum was changed from NCERT to SCERT for Class 1 to 8 by the Delhi government. Over 2,500 blind students studying in special schools for blind and normal schools in the capital are devoid of books and are somehow managing on their own.

This is despite the NHRC intervention and the recent Delhi high court order which directed the Delhi Government to provide books in Braille to blind students. Mr. Anil Aneja, a senior reader with the Delhi University said that braille books are transcribed for the blinds students but since it is a costly affair, the government either gave subsidy to the interested publishers or prints the books as per a section of the Disabilities Act, 1996.

But now it seems that the government has withdrawn this help too. Mr. L.J. Kaul, secretary general of AICB said that school textbooks in Braille are not available in any of the Northeast states besides many other states of the country. Kerala which boasts of the best literacy rate in the country has not thought about their blind students.

Similar situation exists in Rajasthan. He pointed out that the printing press in Kolkata, Panipat, Punjab and Dehradun have been defunct and the respective governments have not paid any heed to the requirements of blind students. Mr. Kaul suggested formation of a co- ordination agency at the Central level to interact with the states in the matter.

Source: Blind yet to receive Braille books. Asian Age, New Delhi, 2006.

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Bus stops in Delhi to become disabled friendly

Delhi government will make bus stops in the city disabled-friendly. It will start with the bus stop at Hauz Khas terminal. Delhi transport minister Haroon Yusuf said that they will make the bus stop at Hauz Khas terminal disabled-friendly.

It will be a pilot project. After this, they will take up other bus stops too. The stop will also cater to the operational high capacity bus service routes. Samarthya, an NGO working for the disabled has conducted a study on bus stops that was used in making Dilli Haat disabled friendly and they presented their results to the Minister.

Source: Disabled-friendly bus stops soon. The Times of India, New Delhi, 7th January 2006.

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