Daijiworld Media Network—Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Jun 14: Ravindra Shanbhag, president, Human Rights Protection Foundation, held a press meet on Saturday June 13 at Vaikunta Baliga Law College on uniting the disabled at the district level.

Addressing the gathering, he said, “Our mission is to provide legal advise under the Constitution. More than 12,000 disabled individuals have been found in the district. Most of the villagers do not have information about government schemes and projects.”

Supporting this, Niranjan Bhat, an officer of District Disabled Developmental Department, said, “There are rehabilitation centers in 64 gram panchayats of a total 151 in the district. We have not yet got the latest data on the total number of disabled due to lack of staff. A few years ago, the data was about 16, 929 but the numbers would have increased now. Lack of absolute information is a challenge.”

Only a few city-based disabled children are getting good facilities due to various reasons. Approximately, six government special schools and six private schools are providing education out of a total 11 schools meant for mentally retarded children and one school for deaf children.

Orthopaedician Suresh Shenoy says the existing schools provide limited skills and materialistic knowledge. “A special girl child can learn from around 5-16 years, and then after that it would be a tough job to secure them and some parents just keep away from their daily activities he alleges. We, the people, should do something to motivate their brain,” he said.

Niranjan Bhat said, “We have enough funds for the disabled, but no person has come forward to take leadership and there is a lack of volunteers.”

DC R Vishal Kumar sent an order that 3 percent of total funds collected from the Kollur Temple Trust should be spent on welfare of the disabled.

Shanbhag said, “The state government is not able to provide everything for everyone. So, there is a need to join hands with private organizations. This is the right time to reunite all the disabled from the grass roots by appointing volunteers at the rural level. Nearly 60 students from MGM College came voluntarily to provide helping hands. If any disabled child is begging on the street, it is an insult to our nation,” he added.

Further, he informed that the first conference will be held in Kundapur while the second will be in Udupi on first of September and all survey processes and required data will be available by the end of August.