Train us to earn a living 8212; Disabled

CHANDIGARH, June 4: quot;Do not give us bread. Give us the training to earn bread,quot; said the blind persons who had gathered in the ...

CHANDIGARH, June 4: quot;Do not give us bread. Give us the training to earn bread,quot; said the blind persons who had gathered in the city from all over the region to share views on the Chetna Parv organised by the Chandigargh Social Advisory Board in association with the Institute for the Blind, Sector 26.

Almost all the participants at the Parv, especially held to make the disabled aware of government programmes available for their welfare, rued society8217;s tendency to isolate the disabled in routine life.

quot;The energies of a blind person should be regarded and utilised fully. His capabilities should not be discarded just because of his physical handicap,quot; said G. P. Bansal, an Officer on Special Duty with the Haryana Irrigation department, who lost his sight some years ago while he was still in service. quot;It8217;s strange that I have the same knowledge and experience in the same department even now. But today I am treated inferior to others just because I can not see.quot; Bansal asked the government to focus on the rehabilitation of the blind in society.

K. R. Sud, principal of the Institute for the Blind, Chandigarh, requested the government to increase funding for the organisations that work for the physically handicapped and revealed that the monthly expenditure of the Chandigarh Institute for the Blind was Rs 1 lakh, whereas government funding is only Rs 20,000 a year.

Kamla Sharma, chairman of the Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board, stressed the need to strengthen the rehabilitation programme for visually handicapped persons through modern scientific techniques. Kewal Krishan Adiwal, Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, said the quot;politicians must protect the rights of the physically handicapped persons.quot; Adiwal, who is also a non-official director of the Scheduled Caste Development Welfare Corporation, assured full support to the blind and the institutes working for the blind. Major Gen Rajendra Nath retd., Chairman of the Society for the Care of the Blind here, also spoke.

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