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Friday 11 April 2014

Making People With Disabilities Aware Of Their Entitled Benefits : Chennai




Local NGOs will now be able to facilitate and increase awareness about the multitude of government schemes in five of the most backward districts of the country, thanks to the `7 crore fund given by the European Union, in a tie -up with the German Leprosy Relief Association (GLRA), towards the Sammalit Vikas Jankari (SVJ) project.


At a press conference here on Wednesday, spokespersons from several NGOs claimed that the biggest obstacle to the uplift of the 2,68,10,557 disabled people in the country was the lack of awareness about the schemes launched by the government for their benefit.


“At present, the basic public service delivery under The Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 and  poverty alleviation schemes for the disabled in India are weak,” said J Ravichandran, CEO of GLRA India. “Both support agencies and persons with disabilities find it very hard to access information about the services,” he added.


The Sammalit Vikas Jankari project will use the local civil society organisations to increase awareness among the most backward districts in Gujarat, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.


“Currently, these districts have about 2.7 lakh disabled persons. We will use the funds provided by the EU and the GLRA to strengthen civil society volunteer groups in these localities or in the absence of such a group, we will form one,” said one of the officials working for the SVJ project.


“This way, even when the five-year project runs to a close, those districts will have groups that can assist other disabled,” he pointed out.


According to the mission statement of the project, its objectives are to increase the quality of delivery of entitled public services to all persons with disabilities, to equip and empower civil society in the form of disabled people organisations, to increase their participation in society, promote accountability in Government of India systems and other service providers, to increase equal opportunities, reduce poverty of persons with disability and enable a better quality of life.


Neeradha Chandramohan, director, National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities, and several other representatives from NGOs, who would carry forward the project in the five districts, were also present at the conference.



Source : The New Indian Express , 10th April 2014

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