New Delhi: Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar listed various initiatives taken by his ministry in the last eight years and highlighted that the government is planning to set up old-age homes in every district of the country and has identified 250 districts where it will be tying up with local NGOs in the area.
"Taking up the issues of the physically challenged, minorities, transgenders, elderly and drug addicts, Union Minister Kumar said that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working hard to achieve all its targets and will continue to do so. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said that the government has started a major reformulation of the schemes. Also for the first time, scholarship money is being transferred directly to the accounts of students through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, the ministry official said, adding that 41 lakh students have so far been benefited from it.
Read: PM Modi urges district officials to chalk out plans to implement Central schemes
The senior ministry official said a movement was going on across the country under the 'Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan'. The government is targeting to make 100 districts 'Nasha Mukt' this year as a part of the campaign. Giving an example, the minister said that a few days ago I visited a Drug Rehabilitation Centre and I met a girl, who had no parents and was brought in here by an NGO. After a while, she quit the drugs and became free and got married. However, after a few months, she again went into drugs and became an addict due to which her family had to suffer. Now she is free from addiction and is working in the Centre as a "councillor".
It is important to understand that such substances do not just destroy the life of an individual, but destroy the lives of the family, he said. Therefore, the government is targeting to make 100 districts 'Nasha Mukt' this year as part of the campaign. Apart from this, the Senior Able Citizens for Re-Employment in Dignity (SACRED) portal and nine start-ups have been roped in for senior citizen employment seekers. The IT platform brings such employment seekers and providers together. The minister also listed various schemes that have been implemented for the elderly, SC, OBC, physically challenged and transgenders.
According to Population Census 2011, there are nearly 104 million elderly people (aged 60 years or above) in India and among them 53 million females and 51 million males. Replying to the queries on the Accessible India Campaign (AIC), the Union Minister on the upcoming meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Disability, replied that they will come up with additional information and declined that this upcoming meet would get extended.
