PRESIDENT PRESENTS NATIONAL AWARDS
FOR WELFARE OF PERSONS WITH DISABILTIES
DR.
KALAM CALLS UPON INDUSTRIAL AND SECTORS TO VOLUNTARILY PROVIDE
JOBS TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
The
President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam has called upon the Industrial
and Service sectors to voluntarily provide jobs to the persons
with disabilities. Speaking at a function after presenting National
Awards for the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities here today,
Dr. Kalam urged the I T Sector particularly the Call Centres to
take up training programmes for the people with disability in
a mission mode in order to facilitate their employment. He urged
the government sector to respect the 3% job reservation quota
for the disabled persons. He also urged the Social Justice and
Empowerment Ministry to launch support programmes for the disabled
so that they feel secure and independent. The President said that
the rehabilitation programme cover only 25 percent of the people
suffering from various disabilities and those left out are mainly
in rural areas. He asked the SJ&E Ministry to conduct a survey
by next year to know the exact umber of disabled persons in the
country.
Referring to the
technological advances in developed countries for helping the
disabled, the President said that India should also evolve and
adopt such technologies on a mass scale. He urged for undertaking
research in disability sector so that the aids and appliances
are cost effective and affordable. He said that I T Technology
should be harnessed for educating the visually impaired persons.
He suggested to the IT Community to produce the Braille key board
and connected software so that reading material is available to
the visually impaired in Indian languages.
Making an impassioned
plea for recognizing the abilities of the disabled, the President
said that he saw an indomitable spirit among the awardees. He
said that it is the winning spirit that has helped them in securing
excellence in their respective fields. Striking a chord with the
audience on the issue Dr. Kalam rendered the following poem on
wining spirit, which was recited with him by the audience as well.
"We are all God’s
Children,
Our Minds are stronger
than diamond
We will win, we will
win, we will win with mighty will"
The President made
inquires from various awardees. He even came down from the dais
to honour some of the awardees.
The Social Justice
and Empowerment Minister Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya in his welcome
address said that the government has decided to set up a National
Commission for the Persons with disabilities. He describe it as
a major step in empowerment of the disabled persons. He said that
out of 130 Rehabilitation Centres for persons with disabilities
being set up across the country 92 have become functional. Dr.
Jatiya said that an awareness campaign about various programmes
and schemes being run by his Ministry for persons with disabilities
would be launched in 399 districts during the 10th Plan.
A message of the
UN Secretary General Shri Kofiannan was read on the occasion.
The function was attended by the Minister of State for Social
Justice and Empowerment Shri Nagmani, the Secretary Shri B S Baswan
and senior officials of the Ministry.
The National Awards
or the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities is being given every
year since 1969. These include awards in best employer, best employee
and best placement agency or officer categories. The recognition
of voluntary effort occupies a special place as the awards in
this category carries a highest cash prize of Rupees One Lakh,
a citation and a certificate. Role Model and National Technology
Awards are also given. From this year, the Best Local Level Committee
Award has been introduced for the services for implementing programmes
of the National Trust. The first award has been shared by the
Local Level Committees of Niligiris District in Tamil Nadu and
Union Territory of Chandigarh.
