New Delhi: President Draupadi Murmu on Saturday conferred the National Awards for outstanding work towards empowerment of persons and disabilities on the occasion of International Day of Disabled persons. The event organized by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment was held at Vigyan Bhavan New Delhi.
At the event, President Murmu conferred National Awards to 25 and 29 awardees for their outstanding contribution in the field of sports, education and others in the year 2021 and 2022 respectively. Praising the Union Government for “working immensely for the upliftment of the physically and mentally disabled, President Murmu noted that every eighth person in the world is disabled.
In India, there are nearly 2.5 crores who are somehow affected by a disability but the government has been working for their education and is in the process of issuing more Unique Disability Identity card which is a great iniatiatibve, the President said. She also said that an atmosphere should be created where the disabled can chose their career, be it in education, sports or in technology.
She also urged states to work towards the empowerment of disabled adding that in education, technology should be used more and more for the betterment of the disabled in order to make education accessible to them.
“The Government and the departments are working tirelessly for the over all development of the disabled. NCERT books from class 1-6 have been transcripted for the blind and more such work would be done in the coming days,” said the President.
On the occasion, the President cited the examples of Surdas and Stephen Hawkens who despite their physical disabilities gave the world an example that physical disability is never an obstacle in life.
Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr Virendra Kumar, Ramdas Athalwale and others were also present on the occasion. Dr Kumar Praised the Modi government and said "we have to empower our brothers and sisters who might be physically or mentally disabled but even then they have the willingness to work on their own."
He also urged the citizens to give a moral support to the disabled. "We also need society's help in aiding our disabled people. So along with government, the role of society is very important for their overall development," he said.
