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Dimapur, March 25 (EMN): Despite the government of Nagaland having implemented job reservation for persons with disabilities (PWDs), State Commissioner for PWDs, Diethono Nakhro observed that there weren’t enough qualified individuals to fill the vacancies, as education for people born with disabilities ‘has been neglected all these years’.
Nakhro was speaking during the inauguration of the new occupational therapy facility at Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research (CIHSR) in Dimapur on Thursday.
She said that except for few, “people born with disabilities do not get education at all”.
“Inclusive education is so important. We have an inclusive education programme but that is actually not inclusive education,” she maintained.
Sharing about disability-related activities in the state, she said that it has been ‘neglected for quite a long time’ and there has been ‘very little awareness’.
“The office was also dysfunctional for many years but happy to report that things are slowly starting to move a little bit in the right direction in various areas,” she shared.
The disability movement has also become stronger now and a lot of people are becoming more active and standing up for themselves, she added.
Highlighting some of the duties of the office, she shared that the main tasks were to monitor and ensure the implementation of the various provisions for persons with disabilities.
She further mentioned that even in the government sector, most of the disability schemes and acts have not been mandated by the state, and so “we are trying to follow and do whatever we can so that whatever benefits are there, can go to persons with disability community”.
The State Commissioner for PWDs shared that the court has been ‘fully functional’ for a while and they have successfully taken up some cases as well.
“Now people are also becoming more aware that such a mechanism exists to take up genuine cases,” she added.
She also shared that they were focusing on sports ‘because that is such an important area’.
“We have started a few activities and we are working with the Olympic association of the state,” she said.
A workshop on strategic planning for disability was also held at the event.
Dr. Atsung Aier, HOD of Community Health, informed that the workshop was organised to discuss measures to take the disability programme forward in Nagaland.
It may be mentioned that the government of Nagaland had in 2018 announced 4% job reservation for persons with benchmark disabilities as envisaged under section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.