Day 18 – Q 4. Disability is a matter of perspective. Comment. What measures have been taken by the government to create a conducive ecosystem for the disabled community.
4. Disability is a matter of perspective. Comment. What measures have been taken by the government to create a conducive ecosystem for the disabled community.
विकलांगता परिप्रेक्ष्य का मामला है। टिप्पणी करें। अक्षम समुदाय के लिए एक अनुकूल पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र बनाने के लिए सरकार द्वारा क्या उपाय किए गए हैं?
Introduction:
Disability is an impairment that can be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or some combination of these. It may be present from the birth or occur during a person’s lifetime. It hampers or reduces a person’s ability to carry out his day-to-day activities.
Body:
Disability can be seen through various perspectives-
- It can be social, which means people are disabled by the barriers in society rather than by their own impairment or differences. For example, not having accessible toilets in buildings, assumptions that disabled people cannot do certain things.
- It can be medical, where medically a person lacks in something as compared to a healthy individual. It categorizes disability into physical and mental.
- It can also be seen as enhancement of one particular sense in a person and lack of another. It is often seen in people disabled from birth, where lack of one sense is compensated by very powerful another sense, like a blind person has a very powerful sense of hearing.
- It also varies due to attitude of the person. Certain people because of their will power and positive attitudes have converted their disability into an opportunity. For example, Stephen Hawking despite being suffering from ALS turned out to be a great scientist and Deepa Malik worked on her strengths to win a medal in Paralympics.
- It also changes over time. What used to be a disability in the past, might be cured or rectified through a simple procedure now.
Measures taken by government to create a conducive ecosystem for the disabled community-
- Legal measures:
- Rights of persons with disabilities act- Increased number of disabilities from 7 to 21, reservation in higher education and government jobs, free education for children between 6 to 18 years.
- Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana- For providing Physical Aids and Assisted-living Devices for Senior citizens belonging to BPL category
- Scheme for Implementation of Persons with Disabilities act (SIPDA)- To provide financial assistance to the states for implementation of act
- Institutional measures:
- Dedicate department- A separate Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities was carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
- Accessible India Campaign- To help make buildings and other infrastructure disabled friendly.
- Sugamya Pustakalya- Online library for persons with disabilities.
- Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP) Scheme- provides for distribution of aids and assistive devices
- Establishment of National fund for Person with disabilities.
- Educational measures:
- Scholarships- Various scholarship schemes have been introduced for disabled students at different educational levels.
- Reservation- 5% reservation is provided to disabled in higher education.
- Social measures:
- Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme- Promote Voluntary Action by releasing grant-in aid to NGOs.
- Corporate Social responsibility- For enabling and empowering disabled persons.
- Research:
- Research- Setting up of Indian Sign language research and training center to benefit persons with hearing disabilities.
Conclusion:
Launching schemes is not enough, we need to ensure that the schemes are implemented in their true spirit, and the society must be made aware so as to remove the social barriers present and convert disability into an opportunity.
Best Answer: John Nash
