Help for disabled in 100 districts

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 30: With over 95 per cent of disabled persons in the country having no access to rehabilitation services of any kind, t...

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 30: With over 95 per cent of disabled persons in the country having no access to rehabilitation services of any kind, the Government has chalked out a long-overdue scheme to provide comprehensive rehabilitation services in over a hundred districts in the country.

For the nearly 50 million persons with disabilities, rehabilitation services are out of reach. It is only a tiny fraction of physically disabled persons living in the urban metropolises who have access to any kind of therapy or rehabilitation facilities.

Though the enactment of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, made the Government responsible for providing comprehensive rehabilitation services to disabled persons, the record of coverage has been pathetic with only about 5 per cent of these persons having access to any kind of help. For persons with disabilities living in the rural areas, any kind of physical handicap is seen as a curse, an affliction to be borne with not even elementary services to improve their qualityof life.

In a bid to reach out to the disabled in rural areas, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has identified 112 districts where comprehensive rehabilitation services will be made available.

So far the Ministry8217;s strategy was to hold quot;health campsquot; in rural areas. The Rs 20-odd lakh spent on each of these camps would result in the distribution of calipers or crutches, or glasses, but it was a one-time affair.

There was no follow-up as a result the disabled children continued to use the same calipers, even after they had outgrown them.

The new plan would be to locate the centres for rehabilitation services in existing structures, like a school, a college or a guest house, and to involve all the trained manpower available in the district.

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quot;Funding for the services will be from the Ministry8217;s existing budget, so I am not going to be spending money on putting up buildings. The scheme will utilise the existing infrastructure,quot; said Minister for Social justice and Empowerment ManekaGandhi.

These district centres would be manned by trained persons, usually the local doctor or primary health care personnel who have been trained to provide rehabilitation services. Each of the disability centres would be accessible to people living in five to six contiguous districts.

The scheme would coordinate the services that can be provided by doctors, non-governmental organisations, local functionaries of the Department of Women and Child, Health and Family Welfare and Panchayat representatives in order to make it as cost-effective as possible.