The marginalization of children with disabilities in critical areas like health and education not only has damaging consequences for the young people themselves but also the wider community, according to a landmark UNICEF report released today on 30 May.
Children with disabilities and their communities would both benefit if society focused on what those children can achieve, rather than what they cannot do, according to UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children's report.
Concentrating on the abilities and potential of children with disabilities would create benefits for society as a whole, says the report released today.
For the first time the Election Commission has introduced Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Braille to help people who have vision disability vote in the May 5 assembly elections in Karnataka.
Official sources said voters with this disability, physically disabled, women voters who come with infants can directly walk into the polling booth without waiting in line for their term.
Senior citizens can also cast their vote without waiting in the queue. The EC has also allowed provision of drinking water to voters.
Campaigning for the May 5 polls ends today.
Anguished over the lapse of funds allocated for the disabled people, a Parliamentary panel has asked the Department of Disability Affairs to make all efforts for full utilisation of its budget in this current fiscal.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, in its report, also termed "unacceptable" the reasons given by the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry for under-utilisation of funds.
CHENNAI: Every morning, state government employee Aruna Devi dreads changing buses at Adyar depot to get to Chepauk, where her office,Ezhilagam, is located. Being visually challenged, Aruna prefers putting her life on the line and waiting on the road rather than getting on to an uneven pavement and risking a fall.
The state government is considering reserving a percentage of affordable homes being built through government agencies for the physically challenged, said MoS for Housing Sachin Ahir during question hour in the Legislative Council on Wednesday.
MHADA is fine-tuning a scheme to build 10,000 affordable houses in Goregaon. "Once this is finalised, MHADA will decide number of houses to be reserved for physically challenged. All other categories for which reservations need to be made are also being discussed," said Ahir.
Government plans to increase pension for disabled, widow and senior citizens besides making changes in the eligibility criteria for pension payment, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Monday.
The current pension of Rs300 per month for widows and physically handicapped, Rs200 for senior citizen and Rs500 to persons above 80 years "is inadequate. It has to be increased," he informed Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.
"We are considering (raising pensions). In next 2-3 months action will be taken," he said.
A U.N. convention aimed at ensuring equal rights for the world's 650million disabled people in work, education and social life will go intoforce on May 3, the United Nations said on Thursday.
The pact,the first of its kind, takes effect 30 days after being ratified by 20countries that have signed it. The world body received ratificationdocuments on Thursday from the 20th country, Ecuador.
Facebook comments