Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 5: Government and educational institutions in Nagaland appear to be incognisant when it comes to the rights and privileges of the differently-able in the state. This came to light during an awareness programme on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD) Act 2016 and career counselling for persons with disabilities on Friday at NStCB Admin. Complex, Khermahal in Dimapur.
The event was organised by Shishu Sarothi (Guwahati) under the Bharti Infratel Scholarship Programme, in association with Prodigals’ Home.
Niharika Das and Mamta Ghosh of Shishu Sarothi stated that the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 puts a lot of responsibility on the state government to ensure its functioning.
According to the Act, special provisions are provided for reservation in jobs for persons with benchmark disabilities. There is 4% reservation for people with blindness and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, loco-motor disability including cerebral palsy, cured leprosy, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy. 15% reservation is for persons with autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability, mental illness and multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness in the posts identified for each disability.
Ghosh and Das lamented that there was much to be done to uplift the differently-able and unfortunately there was no detailed report from the government. In Northeast, the duo said it was very difficult to find correct data on the category of disability as most of the institutions do not have the required category data except the overall data of the differently-able.
Similar was shared by the assistant director of Prodigals’ Home Maong Jamir who said that a survey was conducted in around 20 institutions in the state to find out if there were students with disability. However, most of the institutions had no knowledge, he said..
The director of the Prodigals’ Home, K Ela pointed out that the state government continues to provide an outdated exercise when it comes to government job notification. In regards to this issue, Ela reminded the participants that for many years the PwD were invisible but with the RPD Act 2016, they are entitled to raise question about, or receive, their rights.
The team further explained that the special provision for persons with benchmark disabilities provides free education between the age of 6-18 years and all government institutions for higher education shall reserve not less than 5% seats; and they shall be given an upper-age relaxation of five years for admission in institutions of higher education.
