Chizokho Vero
October 31
KOHIMA (MExN): Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act 1995 which provides equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full participation of disabled persons is not being implemented in letter and spirit in Nagaland. According to the study team on disabilities initiated by Action Aid International India in Nagaland, it was found that the level of awareness on disabled people to be almost non existence.
“This was indicated by the fact that none of them were aware of the existence of such an important Act as the PWD Act 1995; none of them had disability certificate which entitles them to privileges”, a study report said. However, few were aware of Government schemes, such as the NHFDC Loan but the majority were not at all aware of Government schemes and programmes accessible for PWD.
“Though all the villages have education facilities, the literacy rate of PWD is only 14.6 percent. There are no special provisions for PWD in the educational institutions”, the report said. It also stated that the society attitude towards PWD was marked with apathy rather than encouragement in spite of accepting education as an important factor.
The report also mentioned that the hilly terrain of Nagaland with its charms and scenic beauty save for the salubrious climate is hardly disabled- friendly. It also mentioned that the roads are not paved and no ramps are provided where the PWD could use as roads.
Living with the PWD in their homes and interacting with the communities, the team realized that most of the community and the family tend to ignore PWD, terming them as a burden, emotional pain, economic loss and a liability to the family. Further, there seems to be no proper dissemination of Information about the various Government programmes and schemes to make it easily accessible to PWD.
“The poor condition of roads for communication also contributed to the inaccessibility of the various Government schemes”, the report added. In Nagaland, we often tend to acknowledge the disabled as a matter of charity matter than a human rights issue. At present, Nagaland records 26, 499 persons with disabilities which reveal that only 1.33 percent of its population as disabled person.
