Coordinated efforts required for welfare of Divyangjans : Gehlot

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot inaugurated the “National Workshop on Physical and Mental Disabilities in the Light of Global Best Practices in Care, Rehabilitation and Research” here on October 23, 2018.

Shankuntala D Gamlin Secretary, DEPwD, Kamlesh Kumar Pandey, Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities; and Dolly Chakrabarty, Joint Secretary, DEPwD, and many other eminent scholars of the disability sector were present on the occasion. The workshop was organised by the Department of Empowerment of Person with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and hosted by National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai.

Gehlot, in his inaugural address, said that this workshop has been organised to promote the best practices from across the globe in the area of care, rehabilitation and research in relation to the 21 disabilities of RPWD Act 2016. In April 2017, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 came into force. It provides for various rights and entitlements for PwDs and casts responsibility on the State/UTs to take various measures to ensure that the PwDs enjoy their rights equally with others.

He hoped that the workshop will help the participants in acquiring knowledge and develop a comprehensive plan, with clear objectives, towards local and national capacity building for attaining the agenda of Sustainable Development Goals. To implement the best practices, strong commitment and actions are required from all stakeholders, he added.

The Minister said that implementing the best practices requires involving different sectors – health, education, social protection, labour, transport, housing- also different agencies – government, civil society organisations, disabled people organisations, professionals, the private sector, people with disabilities and their families.

It is essential that a developing country like India tailor its actions to address the existing challenges of Early Identification, Early Intervention, Education, Skilling, Employment, Home Living and Community Livings as it looked upon as a Model developing state making it very vital that we establish infrastructure, scientific strategies and protocol of services for all the disabilities covered under RPwD Act, he said.

The National Workshop had experts in the field of  disabilities, including: Orthopaedic Disability, Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Dwarfism, Leprosy-cured person, Acid-Attack victims, visual impairment, hearing impairment, speech and language disability, intellectual disabilities, Specific Learning Disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Mental Illness, and Disabilities caused due to chronic neurological conditions like Multiple-Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Blood disorders like Haemophilia, Thalassemia, Sickle-Cell Disease, and Multiple Disabilities, according to a PIB release.