National summit on divyangan to be held at ESI in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, August 16, 2019: A National Summit from Dviyangan, a person with a disability, will be held here in the city at ESI Medical College.

Organized by Samdrushti, Kshamata Vikas Evam Anusandan(SKSHAM), a national organization with the base at Nagpur and operations in Hyderabad. The Summit will be held on September 14 to 16.

This is the 10th Summit held annually and it is the first to be held in the state of Telangana.

Union Minister Dr.Thawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in the NDA Government will be the chief guest and inaugurate the Summit

SAKSHAM organization works for the rehabilitation of Divyangs or differently-abled persons.

300 delegates from all the states and union territories of India who are successful disabled and achievers. They will share their stories. Some experts who have working in this area will address the gathering.

Some of the speakers include Dr Dayalsingh Pawar, President Saksham All India Federation, New Delhi. He himself is Visually Challenged. He runs a hostel for the Visually Challenged.

The other speakers include: Subash Gupta, a visually challenged Banker. He helped 48 visually challenged get the jobs in Banks is another speaker.

Govindarajan, another visually challenged and entrepreneurs who run a school for 1500 from Chennai will be addressing the gathering

Mallika Natraj, associated with International Special Olympics; Several IIT alumni who are entrepreneurs who produced some useful products for the disability community will also grace the Summit.

Addressing the press conference Dr. Santosh of Saksham said. Several organizations working in the common areas merged and become one umbrella organization called Sakshyam. We are a neutral organization without any ideological bent to any particular region, community, he said. It has a major presence in North India. But, it is establishing in South India.

Speaking about Disability population he said, the number is under-reported. One of our major demand is to prevail on the Union Government that there is a pressing need to understand the numbers of the disabled in a fairly manner. Their census must be taken along with next Census survey, he told. We are planning to give a representation to NSSO--National Sample Survey Office as well as to the concerned Union Ministry, he added.

The press conference is also addressed by Kashinath Lakra, Founder of Manonethra. He informed that they were planning to set up Disability Seva Kendra. These will be set up across India. To begin with, such centers will be set up in 150 districts. Centers will also come up in Telangana. These resource centers will connect the dots to address Disability issues. They connect the needy to the services. It will provide education, create awareness and provide knowledge about Disability schemes and services.

They demanded that all the disabled in the country must be given a unique ID. Disabled are made to stand in queues to avail facilities at Railways.

Another pressing need for the disabled in the country is though Parliament has passed the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (RPWD) But, many states are not implementing it. This bill also called the Disabilities Bill stipulates a jail term of up to two years and a maximum fine of Rs. 5 lakh for discriminating against differently-abled persons. Telangana and AP states are yet to implement this bill

But fortunately both the Telugu states are given the highest pension to the Disabled Rs 2000/- and 3000/- respectively in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Another demand they put forth is that the 3 per cent of the budget of Grampanchanyat, Municipality and Zilla Parishad must be reserved for the disabled. But, that again is a non-starter. District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRC) is non-functional. It must be made active

District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRC) is an initiative by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India, to facilitate comprehensive services to Persons with Disabilities in the rural areas. These units have a group of rehabilitation professions for providing services like identification of Persons with Disabilities, Awareness Generation, Early Detection and Intervention, Provision / Fitment, Follow-up and repairing of Assistive Devices, Therapeutic Services like Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy etc., and facilitation of Disability Certificates, Bus Passes and other concessions/ facilities for Persons with Disabilities. DDRC’s is a joint venture of Central and State Governments wherein Central

The government will establish, initiate, implement the centre for three years involving funding for manpower contingencies as well as required equipment and coordination. State Government will provide provision for rent-free, well-connected building, basic infrastructure, furniture, monitoring and coordination of activities through District Management Team (DMT) Chaired by the District Collector and also the identification of implementing agency.

Though the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot announced that a scheme of ' a universal identity card for the disabled' was on the anvil and an agency had been finalized to issue them. The proposed card would also be linked to the Aadhar card to help the disabled all over the country in a seamless fashion, But it is yet to see the light of the day. And they demanded that the Union government acts on it immediately.

No one is disabled in the creation and everybody is potentially abled.

The name Disabled changed to Challenged, Differently abled to specially-abled. Now we are using new world DIVYANG.

Divyangs can perform well. Physical deformity need not stop from achieving what desires to achieve. Ancient India has rich background disabled being taken care of well by the rulers. There are many successful examples of disabled known all through our ancient history.

Mahasrshi Ashtavakra is physically challenged, but, intellectually and spiritually in higher planes. The Charioteer of Sun's Chariot is Arun(Anur) was not having both legs. Lord Vishnu in his Vaman Avatar was dwarf. Great intellect

Ashtavakra was cerebral palsied. Sant Surdas was Visually challenged. The friend of VD Savarkar and popular poet Shri Aaba was physically challenged.

Chanakya, gave many provisions for Divyanng in his Arthashastra. Raja Chandragupta started rehabilitation centres for Divyaang. Chinese ambassador Pahiyan observed during his visit of Pataliputra in 400 AD, special rehabilitation centre for Divyaang. Samrat Ashok provided different health schemes for Divyaang. Raja Rantidev, Raja Shibi, Dadhichi dedicated their lives in serving downtrodden people, as they felt empathy towards the pain of the sufferers.