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Tuesday 19 February 2013

Weaving a safety net for the differently-abled

A consultation on persons with disabilities was held Saturday, jointly by the Office of State Commission for Persons with Disability, Department of Sports and Youth Services and United Nations Population Fund. This is a part of the series of State- and district-level consultations across various themes with different focus groups towards the formulation of Orissa State Youth Policy, 2013. About 70 people (70 per cent of them being differently-abled young men and women) participated in the consultation and gave their inputs toward the formulation of Youth Policy.

Orissa has the highest percentage of people (10.5 lakh) with disability in the country (Census 2001). The 58th round of disability survey conducted in 2002 indicated that the incidence of disability per lakh of population in Orissa was 2459. It brought out that 9.1 per cent of people with disabilities have passed matriculation; 3.3 per cent have passed graduation; and only 0.2 per cent has passed post graduation. The findings reveal that 77.8 per cent of persons with disabilities survive as dependants. Differently-abled people face multiple challenges in every sphere of their lives and remain detached from participation in the mainstream development process despite constitutional and legislative measures.

Kasturi Mohapatra, State Disability Commissioner, opined that educational institutes should be made disable-friendly. Director, Welfare, Person with Disabilities BB Patnaik suggested that youth with disabilities should be given enough opportunities and scope for being active in the affairs of State and community services. Equitable budget allocation amongst abled and disabled persons, accessibility and disabled-friendly infrastructure, safeguard of their right to expression, gainful employment of differently-abled youth as per their choice and representation in decision making positions for such persons are some of the key suggestions that came up in the consultation.

Source : Orissa Post ( 16th Feb 2013 ) 

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