A
consultation on persons with disabilities was held in Bhubaneswar on
16th Feb, 2013, jointly by the Office of State Commission for Persons
with Disability, Department of Sports and Youth Services and United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).This is a part of the series of state
and district consultations across various themes with different focus
groups towards the formulation of Odisha State Youth Policy, 2013. About
70 people, (70 % of them being differently abled young men and women)
participated in the consultation and gave their inputs toward the
formulation of Youth Policy.
The state of
Odisha has the highest percentage of 2.78% (10.5 lakhs) of people living
with disability in the country (census 2001). The 58th round of
disability survey conducted in 2002 (NSSO) indicated that the incidence
of disability per lakh of population in Odisha was 2459. It brought out
that 9.1% of the people with disabilities have passed matriculation;
3.3% have passed graduation; and only 0.2% has passed post graduation.
The findings reveal that 77.8 percent of persons with disabilities
survive as dependants. The differently abled people face multiple
challenges in every sphere of their lives and remain detached from
participation in mainstream development process despite constitutional
and legislative measures.
Smt. Kasturi
Mohapatra, the State Disability Commissioner opined that educational
institutes should be made disable friendly. The Director, Welfare,
Person with Disabilities Mr. B B Patnaik suggested that the youth with
disabilities should be given enough opportunities and scope for being
active in the affairs of state and community services.
Equitable
budget allocation amongst abled and disabled persons, accessibility and
disabled friendly infrastructure, safeguard of their right to
expression, gainful employment of disabled youth as per their choice
and, representation in decision making positions for persons with
disability are some of the key suggestions that came up in this
consultation. ITIs and Polytechnic institutes of the state should have
special skill development course designed for the youth with
disabilities also came up as a suggestion.
Source : india Education Diary ( 16th feb 2013 )
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