Society’s ignorance, lagging dept. adding to woes of children with disabilities

A Staff Reporter DIMAPUR, MARCH 11 The problems faced by people with disabilities and differently-able children in Nagaland have been compounded by ignorance of the society in general, a department that can’t do much, and lack of aggressive promotional events to sensitize the state about this marginalized community. This was has been stated by Nagaland’s commissioner for disabilities. The 4th regional meeting of parents of differently-able children commenced on Friday at the Town Hall in Dimapur. Sponsored by the National Institute for Mentally Handicapped (NIMH), based in Secunderbad, the two-day meet is being organized by Parivar-National Confederation of Parents’ Organizations and hosted by the Dimapur District Disabled Persons Parents’ Association (DDDPPA). The chief guest of the inaugural function was Nagaland Commissioner for Disabilities Dr. Atha. Speaking during the inaugural programme, Dr. Atha spoke about the importance of unity among the people, but also lamented the lack of awareness among the people. The ignorance acts as a major problem in bringing developmental changes for the welfare of the specially-able people of the state of Nagaland, he said. While admitting the fact that the department was also lagging behind organizing such awareness programmes, the chief guest called upon all individuals to step forward and extend support to the marginalized community in every possible ways. Dr. Atha said that the special children should not be confined inside homes only–as mostly practiced in the state–but should be exposed socially be it at weddings, social gatherings, churches, and smiliar social events. He said this would encourage them to live positive and normal lives. He said that ‘awareness about disability’ was an important issue that needs to be broached in a Christian state like Nagaland. He also highlighted that the department has also failed to live up to the expectations over the years. So far only 10, 000 medical certificates are being provided to the differently-able children, he said in lament. The State Commissioner for Disabilities also hinted the fact that organizing programmes only in main towns of the state will not help. Such events should aim at the remote places as their populations are always the ones ‘not much aware of what’s happening around us.’ Also, seeing the growing number of nongovernmental organizations and self-help groups in the state, Dr. Atha said that only forming organizations and groups will be of no help to anyone if they are not actively involved in spreading what should be done ad practiced. The two-day regional event, which is being held for the first time in Nagaland, has resource persons from various parts of the country. The resource persons have come to provide educational trainings to the parents in various ways. Day-one of the event ended with participation of hundreds of parents and special children who benefited from various speakers. The technical session on MSJE schemes and parental role was presented by head of education department of the National Institute of Mental Health Shielaja Rao; topics on the rights and legal entitlement of Parents’ Organizations for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities was presented by the president of PARIVAAR of Ahamedabad, Col. Dr. V.K Gaudum; the topic on the role of self-advocates and realizing their rights was presented by a past president of the PARIVAAR, Dr. Ajin Kumar Sen. The session was followed by a segment about the role of parents. The segment was presented by Zonal Secretary of PARIVAAR, Shillong, Belbora Wankar. The daylong technical session was followed by a cultural programme. Citizens’ Factfile: Disability in India Census 2001 has revealed that over 21 million people in India as suffering from one or the other kind of disability. This is equivalent to 2.1% of the population. Among the total disabled in the country, 12.6 million are males and 9.3 million are females. Although the number of disabled is more in rural and urban areas. Such proportion of the disabled by sex in rural and urban areas. Such proportion has been reported between 57-58 percent for males and 42-43 percent females. The disability rate (number of disabled per 100,000 populations) for the country as whole works out to 2130. This is 2,369in the case of males and 1,874 in the case of females. Five types of disabilities in India Among the five types of disabilities on which data has been collected, disability In seeing at 48.5% emerges as the top category. Others in sequence are: In movement (27.9%), Mental (10.3%), In speech (7.5%), and In hearing (5.8%). The disabled by sex follow a similar pattern except for that the proportion of disabled females is higher in the category In seeing and In hearing. (Source: Indiafacts.in)