New Delhi:In a bid to rehabilitate Divyangjan, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) Thaawar Chand Gehlot on Wednesday launched a 6-month Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) program.
The Minister, during the launch, said that this initiative would help India in developing trained manpower for the rehabilitation and development of Divyangjan.
Centre launches 6-month CBID program to rehabilitate & empower Divyangjan According to the MoSJE, the program aims to create a pool of grass-root rehabilitation workers at the community level who can work alongside ASHA and Anganwadi workers to handle cross-disability issues and facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in society. These workers will be called 'Divyang Mitra' i.e. friends of people with disabilities.
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Thaawar Chand Gehlot said that the government has enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 which envisions a society inclusive of people with disabilities.
The Minister reiterated that PwDs are an important human resource and if appropriate facilities/opportunities are given, they can excel in any field be it education, sports performing/fine arts. It is with this in mind that the course has been developed in collaboration with Melbourne University.
Gehlot added that due to the pandemic situation, the requirement of a first-hand counsellor/guide for Divyangjan has become further relevant and there is a need to roll out this program as early as possible.
Union Minister of State, SJ&E, Krishan Pal Gurjar said that this program will be the first of its kind which will create trained manpower in identifying risk cases, apprising the parents/guardians about the nearest early intervention centres, and guiding them for availing government benefits for Divyangjan.
“At present, there is a shortage of trained manpower to serve as a link between the PwDs, their parents and the community for Government Schemes and Programmes and CBID programme will go a long way in generating trained human resource to carry out the important task,” Secretary, DEPwD Anjali Bhawra said.
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The Rehabilitation Council of India and the University of Melbourne have been working on this program for the last two years. The Department will involve all the States/UTs in the future expansion of this program, the Secretary explained.
The Rehabilitation Council of India intends to roll out the course initially on a pilot basis for two batches in 7 National Institutes of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and 7-9 voluntary organisations having experience in Community Based Rehabilitation programme.
Initially, the programme will be available in English, Hindi and 7 regional languages, including, Gujarati, Marathi, Odiya, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Garo. The classes for the first batch of about 600 students are expected to commence by August, this year.
The mode of training for this course would be both offline/online taking into account, the prevailing COVID scenario.
This CBID course has been co-designed by Rehabilitation Council of India and University of Melbourne as a joint initiative under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government of Australia and the Government of India on 22 November, 2018 for cooperation in the disability sector.
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