NAHARLAGUN, 19 Jan: National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disability (NIEPID) NE coordinator Ganesh Sheregar said that Arunachal is the only state in the country where no schemes for empowering the divyangjans is operational.
“There are nine such schemes for empowering the divyangjans, but Arunachal is the only state in India where no scheme is operational,” Sheregar said while delivering his keynote address at a training programme at the Oju Welfare Association (OWA) campus here on Tuesday.
The NIEPID coordinator said that persons with special abilities or divyangjans have the equal right to live in the community like other common citizens.
He claimed the Arunachal government in response to official letters had informed the NIEPID that there were no divyangjans in this state. But, the NIEPID had ventured into the state first in 2015-16 to find about 16 divyangjans and issued certificates for them to avail various central government schemes.
Sheregar informed that union Social Justice & Empowerment Secretary Shakuntala D Gamlin has assured to provide land in Aalo for setting up a composite training centre (CTC) for the divyangjans.
“The NIEPID would provide computers, lab and furniture for two classrooms for training of 25 divyangjans, if land is made available in this state to set up such centre,” he said, adding, “there are huge amount of special funds available for the benefits of such people.”
Commending the OWA for rendering humanitarian services, Sheregar said the training centre could be set up in the OWA campus to benefit more than 500 divyangjans of the state.
“Very senior officers were giving false information to the Centre about human rights issues,” Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (APSCPCR) Chairperson Gumri Ringu said, adding that the Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society (APWWS) had campaigned for decades to facilitate setting up of many constitutional bodies, like the APSCPCR and the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women.
The APSCPCR has 48 branches across the state but will conduct a survey soon to assess if rights of the children are protected or no, she added.
Senior journalist Pradeep Kumar recalled how Binny Yanga had begun with an adult education and nursery centre in 1979 to serve the girls and women of the society and registered the OWA in 1988. Though she died in 2015, her presence is very much felt in the OWA, he said.
OWA chairperson Ratan Anya said that she was committed to the welfare of three children who are orphans. One of them was sent to the NIEPID.
Arunachal Pradesh Divyangjan Parents Association president T Ronya also spoke.
The guests handed over 12 sets of teaching-leaning materials of the NIEPID on the occasion.
