NBJK realising rights of differently-abled

Differently-abled people are the most vulnerable groups of our society. If they are poor as in most of the cases, face acute hardship. All this happens despite the legislation, Person with disabilities Act, 1995 which says for equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation for people with disabilities.

With support of Action Village India / DFID - UK, Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra has initiated a programme in July 2010 with more than 32,000 differently-abled living in 20 blocks of Koderma, Hazaribagh, Giridih, Gaya and Nawada. There is minimal awareness of their rights & entitlements and ignorance prevails widely.
NBJK’s approach was primarily rights-based advocacy, supported with elements of service delivery in a difficult environment where the relevant Government services were either absent or limited. A survey by the organisation has revealed that only one out of five differently-abled people has the disability certificate (basic document to get benefits as per the law).

In 30 months only, situation has changed little and these people are now more organised. There are block and district level federations of differently-abled & their family members which works like a platform to raise issues, rights and demands related to disability. This combined effort resulted in medical assessment of 14,650 differently-abled people and issuance of 11,460 disability certificates from civil surgeon offices.
Workshops, training, events like quiz, essay / painting, sport, rally, street plays are the activities being performed. 476 children are enrolled in schools. Aids & appliances for 468, railway concession pass for 1034, social security pension for 4831 are achievements of this period. These people have formed 648 SHGs and there are 350 beneficiaries who have been provided more than Rs. 15 lakhs as micro credit to sustain with various income generation activities they are oriented with. 


Source :The  PioNeer , Hazari Bagh ( 8th March 2013 )