From the States

The spirit of charity continues!

Members of the Tamil Nadu Association for Welfare of the Physically Handicapped, in association with the Sakthi Natural Medicine Research Centre and Viking Engineering Enterprises, distributed aids and appliances to nearly 25 physically challenged persons in Thiruverkadu.

Social Welfare Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna highlighted the State Government’s allocations for persons with disabilities. The Ministry was considering offering certain graduation courses free of cost for persons with hearing impairment.

State commissioner for the Disabled V.K. Jayakodi, members of the Welfare Board for Disabled persons established by the government, and members of the Tamil Nadu Association for the Welfare of the Physically Handicapped were among those present.

Source: Aid distributed to the physically challenged, The Hindu, Daily, Chennai, 3–Sep–2007.

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Children learning to demand their rights

It was exceptionally hot and perspiration and thirst were at their peak. But that did not deter children from 20 special needs schools from walking and being wheeled on the service road near Marina Beach.

Carrying placards describing education as an investment and its importance for the future, they took part in a rally to mark world literacy day and spread the message about the importance of education for children with special needs here on Saturday.

The rally was organized by the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI), West Asia Region, and the Tamil Nadu State Coordination Committee of Parivaar (TNSCC). Commissioner for Disabled People V.K. Jeyakodi, who flagged off the rally, said inclusive education was essential for children with special needs.

District Governor of Lions District 324 A5 K. Gireesh said if intellectual impaired children were given love, care and affection, they could develop and grow the same way as normal children.

ICEVI secretary general M.N.G. Mani said though many government schemes were available for the disabled, it was for the parents to make their children use them effectively. Many parents of special needs children did not send their children to schools. “Parents should value education. They should think that an investment in education is an investment into the future,” he said. The rally was aimed at creating awareness among parents of disabled children about the need for education, he added.

The rally was the first in a series of rallies to be held across the state, said Parvathy Viswanath of TNSCC. A meet for parents would be conducted soon to discuss education and employment for special needs children.

Source: Inclusive education essential for children with special needs. The Hindu, Chennai, 9 September 2007.

MSJE to conduct census

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has initiated steps to create awareness about social justice schemes at the grassroot level. Handbooks on various schemes would be published in all regional languages, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jegadeesan has said. She also said that screening camps to ascertain the exact number of disabled people in Tamil Nadu would be held in each of the 30 districts at panchayat union level. She also asked the panchayat chiefs to maintain a data entry process in each village and get the names of disabled registered.

Laying the foundation for the District Disabled and Rehabilitation Office at the Collectorate complex here on Saturday, the Minister asked non–governmental organisations and other social service organisations to open special schools for children with mental retardation and other multiple disabilities in unserved districts.

Special schools: “The number of such special schools is limited in Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts. The schools should be run by NGOs for a period of two years.” They would be eligible for assistance from the third year.

The ministry would provide financial assistance to NGOs if they came forward to start special schools in unserved districts. Interested NGOs could submit their proposals to the District Collector. The ministry was implementing various schemes with the objective of empowering people with disabilities.

Ms. Subbulakhsmi exhorted panchayat presidents to conduct a survey on the number of people with disabilities in each ward. Specialists from the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD) will conduct screening camps for disabled in all blocks in the State.

Aids and appliances would be distributed to the needy after proper assessment and evaluation. Screening camps would be held in 10 districts in Tamil Nadu in the first phase. The Minister distributed hearing aids and artificial limbs, calipers and crutches worth Rs. 3.35 lakh to 182 beneficiaries during the function.

Dharmapuri MP, Dr. R. Senthil urged the Government to conduct special camps to issue certificates to disabled.

District Collector Pankaj Kumar Bansal said that 3 per cent of funds under SGRY scheme were earmarked for people with disabilities.

The Government had sanctioned a sum of Rs. 35 lakh for construction of District Disability and Rehabilitation Office in Dharmapuri. It had also allotted Rs. 20 lakh for construction of a dormitory in the Government Deaf and Dumb School.

The Government had sanctioned Rs. 13 lakh for training anganvadi teachers to identify children with disabilities, he added.

Krishnagiri MP, E.G. Sugavanam and P.N. Periyannan, MLA, participated.

Source: Handbooks on social justice schemes to be published in regional languages. The Hindu, Chennai, 2 September 2007.

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NAB women go to LoC on rakhi

It was an emotional encounter for the large number of soldiers deployed along the international border in RS Pura sector near Jammu when a group of visually challenged women from Mumbai travelled to the forward posts and tied rakhis on their wrists and applied vermilion on their foreheads singing tunes of the famous song, “tum jeeo hazaroan saal, saal ke din ho pachas hazaar.”

The women represented the National Association for the Blind and carried with them greeting of visually challenged women from across the nation. We are leading safe lives in our cities because our jawans are guarding the frontiers of our nation facing hostile conditions. We are proud of them, the senior most member of the group Shanta Narsinha said after tying rackis. “We are fortunate and lucky enough to have found this opportunity to visit them on this special day and establish a life time bond with them. I really feel overwhelmed with the response and hospitality we have enjoyed here,” Narsinha said commenting on the role of the Army and BSF men deployed on the border and along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

She said their association was sending Rakhis to jawans posted on the border for the past several years and were regularly in touch with the Army authorities. “This time we decided to visit them on the ground and organised a trip to visit the jawans in their field locations,” she added.

Army jawans who were missing their sisters since early morning felt excited and bubbled with joy after a group of six women tied rakhis and prayed for their long lives.

Source: Visually challenged women tie rakhi to jawans in jammu, The Pioneer, New Delhi, 29 August 2007.

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AIIMS tardy over Disability Certificate

After losing his right arm in a factory accident, 28 year–old Narender was running from one hospital to another for more than four year to get Disability Certificate (DC). But despite all efforts made by him in the last four years he got only disappointment from all sides, even the country’s elite medical college and hospital All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) refused to give him DC and sent him to a local Government hospital. “I need a DC to get privileges given to physically disabled people. Even it is important in bus and railways. After accident my condition worsened.” Narender said.

He filed an application to the AIIMS for DC in 2005. But the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, refused his application by saying that he should go to some local Government hospital (reference to DCWL number 1865 issued dated on March 20, 2007). His counsel Asit Kumar Roy had filed an application to AIIMS under the Right to Information Act 2005 on September 18, 2006 asking why DC was not issued to Narender against his application. He also asked that how many such applications are pending for more than one year, with reason of delay.

Replying to this letter, AIIMS said that treatment of a patient is subject to fiduciary relationship between the patient and hospital, which cannot be divulged to any third party. “And accordingly, the desired information about patients medical reports pertaining to physically handicap certificates cannot be provided, as such is exempted under section 8(1) (J) of RTI ACT 2005,” stated the letter of AIIMS (on October 6, 2006). “I asked simple and general questions about not issuing DC to Narender but AIIMS refused to answer,” Roy said.

Narender has filed a complaint in Labour Commission against the Badarpur based Mohan Cooperative Sunahri Lab in seeking compensation against the accident that took place when he was on duty.

Source: 28–year–old awaiting Disability Certificate for four years, The Pioneer, Daily, New Delhi, 3–Sep–2007.

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MCD schools accountable for admission denial

Civil Rights Group, Social Jurist, has approached chairman of the MCD Standing Committee Vijender Gupta regarding a case pertaining to 11–year–old Syaid Umar with mental retardation who has been denied admission by MCD Primary School in Begumpur Village.

According to Social Jurist advisor Ashok Agarwal, a few years back, the committee had taken up the issue on denial of admission to the children with disabilities at Jahangirpuri.

“It was resolved that no MCD School would refuse admission to any child with disability. And if any child with disability is denied admission, strict action would be taken against the principal of the school concerned. But despite the resolution, MCD schools are still refusing admission to the children with disabilities,”he said.

After we came to know that the school has been refusing admission to the children with disabilities, I visited the school on August 25 and requested the in–charge of the school of grant admission to Syaid.

“The in–charge and some other teachers started pleading that they were unable to handle mentally retarded children in the absence of a special teacher and an attendant in the school,”Social Jurist advisor Ashok Agarwal said.

Later, they agreed to admit Syaid provided he produced medical certificate that he was within the ‘educable category’ he added. ‘Education Volunteer’ Santosh Singh agreed to procure the medical certificate. The child was examined by National Institute of Mentally Handicapped, New Delhi, and the institute issued certificate on August 29 that the child had Moderate Mental Retardation with I.Q. 45.

“When Santosh Singh approached the school again on September I and requested for admission, he was told by the in-charge that the last date of admission had expired on August 31 and the school could not grant admission. It is also interesting to note that August 31 was a holiday,” Agarwal pointed out.

He said the constitutional mandate is that all children up to age of 14 years should compulsorily be in school. “If it is so, where the question of expiry of date of admission arises? However, in this case, the child’s parents with the help of Santosh Singh had been approaching the school for the past two months but the admission was not granted.”

The NGO has now requested Gupta to take appropriate action in this matter and also ensure that in future no child is denied admission by any MCD school “on flimsy grounds like birth certificate, medical certificate, residential proof and expiry of date of admission”.

Source: School refused admission to child with disability, The Tribune, New Delhi, 4 September 2007.

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Inclusive vocational schools on anvil

The Delhi Government is planning to open 50 vocational schools in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry to generating better employment opportunities and help enhance the level of confidence of children. This was announced by Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely at a gathering of teachers at Talkatora Stadium where he presented the State Teachers Award 2007 to 69 teachers.

Mr. Lovely lauded the role of the teachers in bringing about a marked improvement in the results of Government schools over the past few years. He said the Delhi Government was now working towards providing computer education in all the schools and would open at least one Pratibha Vikas School in every district. The Minister said the Government would also be opening disabled friendly schools in 11 districts to provide better education to physically disabled children. The syllabus for these schools would be prepared in keeping with the requirements of such students and these schools would also provide wheelchairs and other facilities to disabled students. Keeping in view the Commonwealth Games 2010, the Government has also drawn up plans to set up a sports school in Delhi where children would be trained for the mega event.

The Education Minister said the Government is also committed to protecting the interests of the teachers and planning to increase the number of awards in future so that more teachers could be honoured for their outstanding services. The Delhi Government has also created 6,000 additional posts of teachers and recruitment for these posts would be conducted soon, he said.

Source: Delhi Government to set up vocational schools and special schools for disabled people. The Hindu, New Delhi, 6 September 2007.

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Yet another attack by the police

Under the garb of strictly implementing Section 144, banning of unlawful assembly of more than 4 persons, in the township, the overzealous Panipat policemen led by an ASI today thrashed the protesting students of a blind school, near the office of the deputy commissioner.

Rajesh, Mukesh, Gulal, Narinder and Ajit received injuries on their face, waist, back, legs and other parts of the body’s incident of police highhandedness. In order to disperse the protesting students from the middle of the road, they were allegedly stopped and kicked by the policemen led by ASI Ranjeet posted at the Model Town police station.

Students of the state-run school meant for the visually challenged were protesting against the functioning of the school. The visually challenged students were targeted by the ‘unruly’ cops to ‘maintain law and order’ in the area. In the wake of the Gohana incident, the district administration has imposed Section 144 to avoid any unlawful assembly. Residents of Rajkiya Andh Vidyalays alleged that they were badly thrashed and humiliated by the policemen.

Students said they were protesting against the dinner timing at the school. “For the last several days the dinner time was changed from 7 pm to 5 pm whereas lunch was served at 2 pm daily. We had lodged many complaints to the school authorities but nothing was done,” said a sobbing student.

Meanwhile, condemning the police action, deputy commissioner Rajiv Ranjan assured that strict action against the erring cop after an inquiry would be taken.

Source: Visually challenged students thrashed, The Tribune, New Delhi, 1 September 2007.

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More activists vocalize rights and demand them

The National Disability Network (NDN), Bihar chapter has demanded a separate session in the Chief Minister’s Janata Darbar. Dr Mohan Choudhary, convener of the NDN’s Bihar chapter said, “The Madhya Pradesh government has already introduced a separate session for the physically challenged in the Janata Darbar”. We too want this kind of facility in Bihar.

“Letters have already been sent to the concerned officials for the purpose, but the response is still awaited.” The physically challenged in the state constitute nearly 8 per cent of the total population. But they continue to face discrimination and their rights have been violated, he added. Other demands include construction of a ramp at the venue, arrangement for interpreters for the deaf and mute and a separate walking space for them on the general Janata Darbar day, the NDN convener said.

Source: Physically challenged want separate Darbar session, The Hindustan Times, Daily Patna, 30–Aug–2007.

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Private companies asked to implement reservation

Social Welfare Minister M Kandasamy said that private companies in the Union Territory too would be asked to implement 3 per cent reservation in jobs for physically disabled.

Presiding over a function organised by the department to distribute assistance to the disabled, he said a meeting of officials from private companies would be called next month in this regard.

Mr.Kandasamy also said Government departments that had not implemented the reservation would be asked to do so. He said discrepancies in the list of the disabled would be removed and officials would conduct a check on everyone whose names had been included in the list.

He said for that Deepavali, the department had planned to procure polyester sarees, dhotis, lungis and towels from other States. “We will call for quotations from other States. Our own production by PONTEX is not of good quality and is costlier than what we can get from other States,” he added. The cradle baby scheme, he said, would be named after AICC president Sonia Gandhi.

‘Set up board’: Member of Parliament V Narayanasamy said it was the duty of the Chief Minister and his Cabinet to ensure that funds allocated for welfare schemes reached the beneficiaries. Though the Government was spending nearly Rs. 600 crore from the budget for welfare schemes, he said 21 per cent of people were below the poverty line. Calling for steps to set up a board for the disabled, he termed those making money out of these schemes as “anti–social elements.”

Member of Parliament M. Ramadas said the Government must enable the disabled to earn their livelihood instead of giving them free doles. They must be included in the self employment programme.

There were 1.35 lakh red ration cards in the union territory and this number was increasing by the day. This being the case, he wondered how the per capita income was being calculated at Rs. 61,000 and the growth rate was 12.5 per cent.

‘Hold job fair’: Uppalam MLA A. Anbalagan said two per cent of the population — 19,866 people — were disabled and a special job fair must be held for them. He also called the Government to implement the old age pension scheme immediately. Bussy MLA Anand said 10 kg of rice must be given free to all ration cards since it was an election promise. He urged the government to implement the insurance scheme for the disabled.

Radio sets distributed: Department Director Priytarshini said that a total of 2,065 radio sets were distributed to the visually challenged, 10 hearing aids to the hearing impaired, 10 walking sticks, 7 tricycles, 4 wheel chairs and 50 nadaswaram and thavil instruments.

Source: Firms will be asked to reserve 3% quota for the disabled: Minister. The Hindu, Chennai, 4 September 2007.

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State plan initiated 7 years ago languishes.

In December 2000, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had during the State Assembly session announced the State Plan of Action (SPOA) for Persons with Disability. Seven years later, the plan—envisaged for five years with an outlay of Rs 800 crore— is yet to take off.

When contacted, the chief minister said he “would have to look into the issue as it is seven years old.” When pointed out that it was he who announced the plan, he said: “Please ask them to see me. If the plan is for the benefit of the people, I will definitely support the initiative.”

Deshmukh had announced the plan during his first term which was from October 18, 1999 to January 17, 2003 and now the CM who is serving his second term, after he took over on November 1, 2004 will be looking into it again.

Pune–based disabled activist Samir Ghosh, who was asked to prepare the plan, is ready to meet Deshmukh with the plan again. He said the persons with disability are still living with hope that the “progressive looking plan will be implemented some day which will bring a ray of hope and relief to the disabled sector.”

Ghosh had recently met Supriya Sule, MP, and even sent a letter to the State Chief Secretary, wanting to know the progress of the SPOA. The plan was initially taken up by Subash Lala, the then secretary to the Ministry of Social Justice to work out the modalities of implementing it. “But did not pursue it further,” he said.

Ghosh said despite several ambitious national programmes, the overall development indicators of the PwD remained abysmally low on almost all fronts. With his expertise in the field of social policy and planning, Ghosh put forth the plan after a lot of consultations and attendings workshops which looked at PwDs having a “stronger say in their life through ensured participation.”

Pooling resources being one important factor, in the letter, he also mentioned that in a recent World Bank team interaction, they had expressed interest in partnering with states who would want to take up the issues in the disability sector. Ghosh wants the government to take cognizance of it now, as he had envisaged the participation of World Bank and wants the government to meet and explore the cooperation from this front.

The plan scans through various development opportunities in India keeping in congruence with the perspective defined by the United Nations, the GoI, the State Government and NGOs as well as present situation and current programmes run by the department of the social justice in line with the PwD act. The plan looks at the components of education, health, vocational training and employment and rehabilitation services.

Source: Nisha Nambiar, The disabled look to CM with hope, The Indian Express, Pune, 8 September 2007.

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