In a big relief to the parents of children with disabilities, the Human Resources and Development (HRD) Ministry has asked all the schools across the country to reimburse the expenditure incurred on books, uniforms and transport of such kids.
This was stated by Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh on Sunday at an event where twelve individuals and organisations, all role models in furthering employment opportunities for persons with disabilities (PwD), were felicitated with the prestigious award 'The NCPEDP-Mindtree Helen Keller Awards for 2018'.
Singh said there are about 12 million people with disability and just one per cent go to schools. "Specially challenged people just do not need courtesy and compassion, but real empowerment which would come through education. How to ensure it is a big challenge," he said on the eve of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Arman Ali, Executive Director, NCPEDP (National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People), an organisation working towards empowerment of PwD, added, "People with disabilities in rural India and smaller towns and cities still have no access to education, employment or livelihood. We need to focus our attention to their needs and ensure they can live with dignity and independence."
As per Census 2011, in India, out of the 121 crore population, about 2.68 crore are persons with disabilities, ie 2.21 per cent of the total population.
N S Parthasarthy, Executive Vice Chairman and COO, Mindtree Limited said, "The visibility brought about by these awards is very encouraging and more importantly, this is the result of more organisations changing their attitudes and perceptions on having people with disabilities as part of their workforce — though more needs to be done."
One of the awardees, Shishir Rambhau Gorle, Founder, Square Meal Foods , opined that disability is rarely the challenge. "People are disabled due to a hostile environment around them and that is the change we hope to bring about", he added.
Amritsar based businessman Dawinder Singh from Sehdev Jewellers and GemLab Laboratories, Moses Chowdari Gorrepati (Bengaluru) from Enable India, Tiffany Brar (Trivandrum), Founder of Jyothirgamaya Foundation and Naveen Ravindranath (Bengaluru) from DellEMC bagged the award for not only overcoming their disability but also providing employment to others like them.
The others who received the award were Aradhana Lal, (New Delhi) from Lemon Tree Hotels, B S Nagesh, (Mumbai) Founder, Trust for Retailers & Retail Associates of India and Yajurvendra Anil Mahajan, (Jalgaon) Founder of Deepstambh Foundation
The Organisations from the disability sector or outside for showing their commitment towards promoting equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities which bagged the prestigious awards included Dr Reddy's Foundation (Hyderabad), Square Meal Foods (Mumbai) , The Leprosy Mission Trust India (New Delhi), Mumbai-based Trent Hypermarket (A TATA & TESCO Enterprise) — (Mumbai) and Worth Trust (Vellore).