At a meeting with the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, the hearing and speech impaired representatives from six districts pressed their demands for empowered Divyaang Ayog at the earliest. They expressed the need to segregate the hearing and speech impaired people from common handicapped category.
The state president of Devbhoomi Badhir association secretary of National handicapped rights and duties Manch, Sandeep Aroa told the Pioneer, “We had given the memorandum to the Haridwar Parliamentarian Ramesh Pokshariyal Nishank that the condition of the dumb and deaf of the state was becoming from bad to worse. The fresh instance of the same was the rising problems of physical and sexual harassment and female foeticide of the inmates of Nari Niketan. The reason behind all these incidents is non-existence of an empowered Vikalang Ayog (handicapped commission).”
Discussing about their problems, Sandeep Arora said, the state has kept blind, handicapped and deaf and dumb under one category but each one’s pain and requirements are different.
According to the Indian Constitution all have got the same rights but in reality there is so much of disparity. Amongst the handicapped people, dumb and deaf people lie in separate category.
Arora slammed the state government for having no policy for the education, rehabilitation and reservation in the government jobs. In such a condition considering the deaf and dumb merely as handicapped is not fair he said.
The state president of National handicapped rights and duties Manch Amit Dobhal said that it was unfortunate that the state government did not have a separate policy for the deaf and dumb. Different cells of blind, handicapped and the deaf and dumb under the commission were demanded by Apoorva Nautiyal.
To get respect in the society we expect justice from the state government, said the district president of the association Sanjeev Kumar of Dehradun.