Artificial limbs Manufacturing Corporation limited (AlIMCO), working under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, conducted a mega distribution camp for aids and assistive devices, here on Tuesday. One thousand five hundred and seventy eight beneficiaries were provided with state-of-the-art high-end technical devices at the Manohar Bhushan Inter College grounds, in an event presided over by Thaawarchand Gehlot, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the presence of Santosh Kumar Ganwar, Minister of State of Textiles (I/C), member of parliament, Bareilly.
Speaking on the occasion, Thaawarchand Gehlot said that the central government has brought transparency to the ADIP Scheme and the massive response and success of the scheme has added to the popularity of this initiative by the ministry. The minister also informed the audience that 315 children with hearing impairment have been successfully provided with cochlear Implants. He also added that the Government has launched the ‘Accessible India Campaign’ or Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan as a step towards achieving universal accessibility.
Appreciating the efforts of the department in successfully organising this camp at Bareilly, Santosh Kumar Gangwar expressed his gratitude on behalf of his constituency. He added that this camp will benefit many persons with disabilities (PwDs) and help them overcome odds that they currently face in their daily lives.
Shedding further light on the activities of DEPwD secretary DEPwD, Vinod Aggarwal informed the gathering that the Department was not only providing Assistive devices to PwDs but has also provided skill training to approximately 1 lakh PwDs in the past one year. He added that 50 cities and 705 Railway stations in India are being covered under the accessible India campaign.
One thousand five hundred and seventy eight beneficiaries were provided with free-of-cost equipment worth Rs 1.31 crore. The beneficiaries were identified under a screening exercise carried out by AlIMCO’s Baliya unit with help from district administration, Bareilly. The screening camps were conducted at Meerganj, Nawabganj, Bhojipura and Manohar Bhushan Inter College. The distributed high end devices included
25 Motorised Tricycles
1200 Tricycles
96 folding wheel chairs
15 CP chairs
678 crutches
138 walking sticks
16 braille cane
360 behind-the-ear hearing Aid
07 MSIED kits
CMD AlIMCO, DR Sarin, representatives and senior official from the district administration were also present on the occasion.