SHILLONG, Dec 4?The Meghalaya Government will soon issue notification reserving three per cent job quota for the physically challenged youth of the State. Informing reporters on the World Disability Day on Wednesday, the Commissioner of Social Welfare S S Gupta said the government has already reserved three per cent of all poverty alleviation schemes for disabled people.
The government has also issued directive to the district authorities to make all new government buildings easily accessible to the disabled people by installing ramps and other arrangements for facilitating their easy movement. Meghalaya has approximately 1,30,000 registered disabled people, majority of who are in the prime of their youth. There are about six to seven crore of disabled persons in the country, out of whom less than two per cent have received education and less than one per cent are gainfully employed.
Meanwhile, the World Disability Day was observed in a unique manner in the city on Wednesday through collection of signatures of the citizens on pledges to make efforts to include the disabled people in the mainstream activities. Thousands of people went to the 17 ?solidarity booths? put by the District Social Office (DSWO), in association with various NGOs, in several parts of the city and extended their support to the disabled people by signing up their names and addresses after reading the pledge.
The pledge read: ?I am aware that discrimination and marginalisation exists in society, physical attitudinal and institutional barriers segregate people... I pledge to the cause of an inclusive society and to make conscious efforts to include people with disability in mainstream activities.? East Khasi Hills District Social Welfare Officer Iada Lyngwa told reporters that the objective of pulling up the ?solidarity booths? instead of organising functions was to create awareness among the people on the welfare of the disabled people.
The United Nations on December 3, 1987 had declared the ?Decade of Disabled? with the aim of creating awareness among the people on the welfare of the disabled people and also to observe the World Disability Day on the third Sunday of March. Subsequently, in 1994, the UN decided to observe the day on December 3 every year to commemorate the declaration of the ?Decade for the Disabled? people. The National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People (NCPEDP) has been networking with various NGOs, in the country and had suggested this year?s theme for the Disabled Day as ?Inclusion?.