Srinagar: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan, today remarked that it is the duty of every conscious human being to play his/her role in making the life of the disabled easy and comfortable.
The Advisor was speaking as a chief guest at a webinar organised by National Trust (NT) for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation & Multiple Disabilities, a subsidiary of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India.
Secretary, Social Welfare, Sheetal Nanda was the guest of honour and Anjali Bhawra, Secretary, DEPwD, Chairperson, National Trust and Kishore BaburaoSurwade, DDG, DEPwD were the special guests.
The meeting was attended by District Magistrates, Superintendents of Police, Chief Education Officers, Chief Medical Officers and District Social Welfare Officers from the various districts of J&K and Ladakh along with other Government officials of Social Welfare Department and organizations, professionals and Divyangjan from the region.
On the occasion, the Advisor expressed his elation for the inclusion of J&K under the ambit of National Trust. He said that this step would go a long way in benefitting people with different disabilities. He said that such people can live independent and successful lives if provided with proper support and opportunities to excel.
He further said that parents in particular and society, in general, has to play a pivotal role while dealing with people with disabilities. He urged that they should be encouraged to take part in various activities of life to live positively steering their lives as per their aspirations. He maintained that only society has to change its point of view regarding these persons and only think in terms of inclusivity.
Sheetal Nanda told that the meeting was one of the first to aim at creating awareness in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir which was previously excluded from the implementation of the National Trust Act, 1999. She further said: “the meeting will pave way for strengthening the activities for Divyangjan in the category of Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities in the UT.”
During the webinar, it was revealed that the trust offers a number of schemes and programmes for the safety and welfare of persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation & several other disabilities.
It was said in the web meet that ‘Niramaya’ is a health insurance scheme to provide affordable health cover to persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and multiple Disabilities. It was also revealed that ‘GHARAUNDA’ is another lifelong shelter and care scheme for persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
The other welfare programmes of the trust include Gyan Prabha for post-school vocational training/professional courses for enhancement of skill of persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
Uddyam Prabha scheme is for promoting income-generating economic activities for the self-employment of persons with these disabilities. ARUNIM (Association of Rehabilitation under National Trust Initiative of Marketing), is a Marketing Federation for development and marketing of products made by persons with Disabilities, the participants were informed.
The Trust is also running “Abiline” for persons with disabilities for providing information and counselling on autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities, as was made out during this web meet.
Other speakers who presented their views during this webinar were Asheesh Singh, District Magistrate, Ujjain, MP; NK Sundaray, CEO NT; UK Shukla, Programme Director, NT and many other professionals and office bearers of the Trust.
