Empowering the differently-abled

Microsoft Corporation India along with Sarthak Educational Trust organised the first ever ‘Accessibility Summit’ at the premises of Microsoft Hyderabad to empower differently-abled people.

As a part of it, various representatives from the government and technology innovators shared the new ideas and solutions to accelerate disability inclusion in India. The one-day summit witnessed various group discussions, panel discussions, and talks of disabled people from all over the country.

Apart from the discussions and talks at the summit, many creative people from all over India showcased their newly designed products for the disabled people. Navreet Kang, Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India said, “According to 2011 records, India had 2.68 crore people with various kinds of disabilities and we estimated that the count has been increased to 10-15 per cent of the population in the present scenario.

In many Indian states, the certificates issued for disability is more than the actual persons of disability. In recent times, we also found new disabilities like ‘Learning’ and ‘Intellectual’. People who were attacked by acid are also come under the disabled category according to the recent judgment by the Supreme Court. Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry also released guidelines that movies must have subtitles for people with hearing impairment.”

Sharing about the initiatives undertaken by the Union Government to empower the differently-abled, Navreet Kang, says, “On December 3, 2015, the Union Government launched ‘Accessibility Campaign’ to give support to them. We are also planning to implement accessibility to these people in all kinds of services in future. We had 1,707 buildings all over India for them.

We will also provide 10 per cent buses for the differently-abled in every State in near future. Indian Railways is also providing special platforms like A, A1, and B and till now out of 740 stations, 659 stations have been selected for this. Recently, we initiated new law for disabled people. We guarantee that all the consumer products will be accessible to each one of differently-abled by October 19, 2017.”

Dr Jitender Aggarwal, founder of Sarthak Educational Trust said, “In 2004, I lost my central vision due to macular degeneration and that resulted in discontinuing my practice. To overcome this problem, I started the Sarthak Educational Trust in New Delhi, to help the differently-abled.

We are working on the principle of empowering the persons with disability through intervention, inclusive education, skill development, placement, and advocacy generation. We are happy for this summit and we will organise this every year to help the disabled people. Till date, we placed around 7,500 people through our organisation in various companies.”