From the States

Chennai

faridabad

Guwahati

New Delhi

A different bakery

Five young adults with mental retardation have organized themselves and will be selling cakes, pastries, puffs, biscuits and cookies to beachgoers on the Marina every evening. City-based non-governmental organisation Pathway Centre for Rehabilitation and Education of Mentally Retarded, wich has trained its students to make bakery products, is now encouraging them to begin a "mobile eatery" in an effort to make them independent.

Ms. Sudha Subramanian from Pathway said that besides this, their parents will also take care of the tuck shop to help them handle customers. Plan for now is to sell only bakery products, including breads and buns, to people in Besant Nagar and will probably visit Marina beach once every evening. The students, all above 18 years of age, will also sell their products at government offices like the DMS building in the afternoon. They will be at the government building during lunch and tea time when there is a demand for snacks.

Source: Disabled persons to sell snacks on beach. Asian Age. New Delhi, 9 October 2005.

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Aids and Appliances Camp

An eight-day-long camp would be organised at Aggarwal Dharmashala in Ballabhgarh from October 21 to 28 to provide free aids and instruments to persons with orthopedic handicaps. About 5,000 applications had already been received for the camp.

According to the Deputy Commissioner, the camp would be held with the direct involvement and cooperation of the District Red Cross Society, Lions Club International, Bhagwan Mahavir Vikalang Sahayata Samiti (Jaipur). Aids like calipers, artificial limps, tricycles, shoes, wheelchair splinters and hearing aid will be provided to the applicants.

Facilities for eye testing and contract operation would also be made available. The organizers have fixed separate days for the patients and applications from various subdivisions like Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Pawal, Hathin and Hodal.

The camp would also entertain physically disabled applicants from outside on October 27 and 28. According to the authorities, this would be one of the largest such camps so far for which boarding and lodging would be made available for the applicants selected. Registrations are now open and interested persons should contact the office of the Red Cross Society or with the block and tehsil office at Faridabad.

Source: Camp to provide aids to disabled. The Tribune, Chandigarh, 9 October 2005.

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Employment Avenues

All the colours of the rainbow have come down at Shishu Sarothi, the Centre for Rehabilitation and Training for Multiple Disabilities, as its children have engaged themselves in a mega Diwali Diya Project.

Rani, Sangeeta, Meghali, Arjun, Chandren, and many other children here are now busy with colouring earthen lamps and embellishing them with chumkis, and other glittering objects. The center has gone big this year. They will decorate 20,000 diyas and will go commercial this Diwali season.

Along with the diya project, the children here are also busy with their hand painted greeting card project. The best drawings of the children will be selected for printing and the funds generated from the sale of the cards will provide additional facilities for the welfare of the children.

Source: Shishu Sarothi kids go commercial. The Sentinel, Guwahati, 5 October 2005.

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Employment in the private sector

The Socio Economic Development Foundation (SEDF) of the Federation of India Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) organized a symposium on the Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities. The event brought together representatives from organisations working with and for disabled person across sectors of public, private and non-governmental organisation.

The event was under FICCI's six-point agenda under their program Action for Harnessing Employment Avenues for Disabled (Ahead). This program adopts a multi-sectoral collaborative approach in the delivery of service and works towards opening avenues for livelihood in alliance with other partners.

The issues discussed included enactment and implementation of Persons with Disability Act, creating a barrier-free environment accessible to all, approaches in rehabilitation for differently abled, there education, training and employment, newer opportunities and the role of sectors like information technology, amongst others.

It was pointed out that the numbers were large - The National Sample Survey Organisation in its 58th round estimated the number of persons with disabled at 18.49 million or around 2 percent of the total population. P M Sinha (President, FICCI-SEDF) said that despite the legislative and policy measures, the employment scenario was dismal.

However, he did say that the trend was upward with a growing transformation in the mindset of employers. He said it was this change that lead FICCI to look at other areas that could target a gain in the employment percentages. Arun Seth (chairman, BT India) corroborated this observation with special reference to the IT sector in his address.

Representatives from companies like Titan presented their case studies. Manoj Chakravarti (General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Titan India Ltd.) said that Titan has hired around 195 differently abled people (representing 5% of the company's total employee strength) and almost 75 percent of these employees live in Company Township and their children get quality education from the Titan School. Most of them are married, predominantly to people without disabilities.

Source: When disability is a different ability. Financial Express, New Delhi, 9 October 2005.

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Is this necessary?

Delhi University will soon establish a new college named Durgabai Deshmukh College for imparting special education to visually impaired students. The institute will run a teachers training programme as well for 20 visually handicapped students each year.

Mr. P C Mehta (Blind Relief Association's deputy executive secretary) said the proposal to get affiliation from a prestigious university to run a B.Ed course was sought from 2002 and since 2003 the matter was pending with the academic council. Mr. Mehta said though most universities have a quota for physically challenged students, which includes all sorts of impairment, there is need for special attention for visually handicapped students.

The college will be funded by the Blind Relief Association. Elaborating on the preparations that are going on towards launching the course, Mr. Mehta stated that a library will also be established with books on extensive subjects in Braille.

However, the course content for B.Ed will be designed by the university. "There are some requirements of the university that need to be met before clearance of the proposal. According to some statutes of the university and guidelines of the Rehabilitation of India Act, the course has to be designed by the affiliated university," said executive secretary, Mr K S Pandey. However, he also revealed that the content will almost be the same as that of the university's own B.Ed course.

Source: Special DU college for visually challenged soon. The Statesman, New Delhi, 4 October 2005.

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The state of the matter

The people running the PCO booth at Palam Airport for the last 19 years are unemployed for the last two. Their fault: They are disabled. Their booth was removed in 2003. These booths were awarded by the high court way back in 1987. Till 2003 the persons running these booths were making a living, but now they have nothing else to do but run around officials.

What is noteworthy is that the High court has given directions to Airport Authority of India on the matter yet no official from AAI is willing to talk on record about this issue.

Source: Airport authority ne chchina apango se rozgar. Dainik Jagran, New Delhi, 9 October 2005.

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