From the States

New Counseling Center launched

In an effort to provide remedial education and remedial therapy to children, the Jawahar Bal Bhavan will launch a counseling centre at its premises at Charni Road 4 on the occasion of Children’s Day. While children with learning disabilities will be the special focus of the project, it will be open to all students from 4 to 16 years.

“Children these days are under a lot of pressure from parents and peers. The rising rate of students’ suicides is a testimony to the fact. Hence, the centre will attempt to address the emotional problems faced by students,” said Jawahar Bal Bhawan Director Basant Roy. Stressing on the fact that while most ‘elite’ schools have the provisions of a councilor to address the needs of the children studying there, Roy said that “ordinary or financially backward schools are unable to provide such service”.

“In South Mumbai alone, there are approximately 200 schools which do not have counseling facilities. We will step in and help such institutions,” she added.

Circulars will be issued to schools to inform them of the center’s launch. While principals and teachers suggest names of students with learning disabilities and other problems, parents and students will also be encouraged to approach the Bhavan directly. The centre is being launched simultaneously with the Children’s Day programmes in order to spread awareness among the participating schools, students and parents.

Keeping in mind the convenience of students, the Bhavan plans to extend its facilities n feature by introducing a similar centre in the suburban areas. “But we will do so only after assessing the performance of the existing one,” said Roy.

The Bhavan will also train teachers so that they can identify children with educational and emotional problems in the first place. “Detection is a very important factor. Often problematic cases go unnoticed because teachers are incapable of identifying them,” emphasized Roy.

Though a definite time is yet to be decided, counseling will be done after school hours, possibly from 3 to 7 pm. Moreover, the Bhavan plans to keep the centre open throughout the week.

Experienced doctors and NGOs will assist the Bhavan in its project. Head of department of paediatrist at the Lokmanya Tilak Medical College and Hospital Madhuri Kulkarni, who is yet to give her approval said: “It is a good initiative but what exactly they are expecting from me and how I can help them will be clear only after a detailed meeting,” she said.

The Maharashtra Dyslexia Association has already given its nod and will give particular attention to the problems if children with special needs.

Source: Remedial therapy centre for school children. Indian Express, Daily, Mumbai, 10 November 2006.

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DDA’s attack on halfway home

As many as 45 chronic psychiatric and mentally disabled patients were confined to their rooms as the Land Acquisition Collector along with the Delhi Development Authority demolished the peripheral structures at the Raheja Hospital and Psychiatric Research Institute at Bharthal village in South West Delhi. The 4.5 acre land on which the hospital stands has been acquired by DDA for Dwarka phase II to be developed into “recreational area”.

The Supreme Court had upheld the DDA decision to acquire the land in April 2006. As a result, a DDA spokesperson said, the Land and Acquisition Collector would take possession of the land and then hand it over to the DDA.

In pursuance of the Court Orders, a demolition squad of the DDA land and LAC reached the site at around 11 a.m. and began pulling down the peripheral wall and other structures. By evening all the constructions barring the main building had been demolished. Here being no boundary wall, the hospital was forced to confine all the patients to their rooms so that they did not run away.

Source: Mentally disabled left out in the clod. The Hindu, Daily, New Delhi, 11 November 2006.

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NAD holds dharna outside CCPD office

Members of the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) held a demonstration outside the office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) to protest against the denial of allotment of civil service to the three hearing impaired candidates who cleared the all-India civil service examination.

The demonstrations locked out the staff of the CCPD office saying that if they could not get justice for disabled people it was better to shut down the office.

CCPD Manoj Kumar and Deputy CCPD TD Dhariyal were both away in Chandigarh holding a mobile court. When contacted, Kumar said he had taken suo moto notice of the event “I issued a notice to the DoPT on November 6 seeking a reply on why candidates with hearing impairment were not allotted any service even though they were allowed to appear for the exam and had cleared it successfully,” he said, adding that he had sought an explanation within two weeks.

However, NAD members asked why Kumar had not taken any action to get justice for the successful candidates till this week, though the rest of the successful candidates for the civil service exam of 2005 left for training in August this year.

“Why should both the CCPD and Deputy CCPD not be available? Every State has its own Chief Commissioner for people with Disabilities. So why should the CCPD have to go to each state to hold mobile courts?” asked Javed Abdi of the Disability Rights Group. The demonstrators, mostly hearing impaired, were further agitated because the CCPD office had no sign language interpreter.

“How do they expect to address the problems of the deaf if they can’t even talk to them? And this is despite the fact that we had informed the deputy CCPD that we will be coming to hold a demonstration,” said Arun Rao of the organization Deaf Way.

Source: Disability office locked over IAS posting denial. The Times of India, Daily Mumbai, 10 November. 2006.

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Reservation in professional courses demanded

Physically challenged in Jammu and Kashmir are demanding reservations in the professional courses, as per their ratio, in the state population. These people believe that the government is not doing enough for their upliftment.

“The Disability Act 1998 gives us three per cent reservation in the employment. There is also some reservation in academic courses but there is no reservation for us in professional courses in the state. We demand some reservation in the professional curses,” said Javed Ahmad Tak, chairman, Humanity Welfare Organization Helpline (HWOH) a non-governmental organization for the upliftment of disabled people.

Most of the persons with some deformities, blame the State government for not doing enough for their empowerment. The State government is only concerned with the vote bank politics. “We do not fit in their plan of action so the politicians do nothing for us. We are not demanding any alms but only our right, which is enshrined in the constitution itself,” remarked Tariq Ahmad, a visually impaired post graduate student in Kashmir University.

Although the “persons with disability act 1998” makes it mandatory for the state government to take steps for the disabled people in the field of education and employment but the beneficiaries of this act believe that the law is only in books and ground situation is entirely different from what is enshrined in the constitution.

Different courses in National Institute of Technology (NIT), Government Medical College (GMC), in Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences offered by the Board of Professional Entrance examinations (BOPEE), exclude persons with disabilities as there is no disabilities as there is no reservation provided to the, by the board. Similar is the case with the course offered by the Government college of Education, there is no reservation for the persons with disabilities in BED Courses.

The chairman HWOH remarked that it is not the professional courses alone wherein the persons with disability feel discrimination but they have to suffer in employment as well. “We have been discriminated a lot in the employment front. There are many examples which we can quote wherein many of us were denied the recruitment.”

As for the rules laid down in the Disability Act 1998, government has to identify the posts in its various departments, which would be filled by the persons with disabilities. The chairman SSRB Farooq Ahmad Pir observed that the entire government department duly identify the posts for the persons with disabilities and they are also filled accordingly.

When asked, why it has not mentioned any category for the persons with disability in its brochures, chairman of Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) Santokh Ram said, “we are an implementing agency and unless any category for the persons with disability is not incorporated in the reservations rules, we can not do anything for them”.

When contacted, the secretary of social welfare Asgar Samoon said, “We are proposing an amendment to the Act wherein the issue of reservations in professional courses will be met. Besides that we are making a policy wherein each and every department including the private sector will have to establish an exclusive cell for the persons with disability so that there will be no discrimination with this valuable asset of our society”.

Source: Physically challenged seek reservation in professional colleges. Kashmir Times, Daily, Jammu, 10 November 2006.

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Preparation for celebration of World Disabled Day

Brisk preparations are on to observe the World Disabled Day centrally at Udalguri covering the area under the jurisdiction of BTC region. To be held under the auspices of All BTAD Disabled Persons’ Association, the two-day-long programme is slated for December 3 and 4 next.

A meeting to this effect held at the Udalguri district Disabled Persons Association office was presided over by Lalit Kumar Brahma; president of All BTAD Disabled Persons Association. The meeting held recently also formed a strong 41-member reception committee with Dilip Dimary as president, Agama Basumatary general secretary and Tkram Yogi as assistant secretary respectively.

A press release of the reception committee appealed to all sections of the society to extend cooperation to this effect.

Source: World Disabled Day to be celebrated centrally at Udalguri. Assam Tribune, Daily, Guwahati, 7 November 2006.

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