Press Release

New DelhiDated: 04.01.2017

More Than 13,000 Backlog Vacancies For Persons With

Disabilities Cleared During The Last Two Years

Sh. Krishan Pal Gurjar

The Union Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment, Sh. Krishan Pal Gurjar made several important announcements here today. The MoS was speaking as the Chief Guest at the 208th Louis Braille Birth Anniversary function organized by All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB) at its premises in Rohini, Delhi. The Minister stated that over 6 Lakh persons with disabilities have been presented technological equipment and devices free of cost under the Government’s ADIP Scheme during the last two years. Similarly, long pending backlog of vacancies reserved for persons with disabilities have also been largely filled up during this period—over 13,000 vacancies out of a total backlog of 15,000. The Prime Minister, he added, has launched the ‘Sugamaya Bharat Abhiyan’ which seeks to provide barrier-free environment for PwD’s in such areas as built up spaces, information and communication technology and roads and transportation systems. The ‘Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill’ has received the Presidential assent and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) is now in the process of formulating necessary rules for implementing various provisions of this landmark legislation—the Minister added.

The function which was largely attended, was presided over by Sh. Ashwini Kr. Choubey, Member-Lok Sabha.

On this occasion, the Minister unveiled the AICB’s training programme in Digital Payment Mode for the blind, which seeks to facilitate movement of the visually impaired towards a cashless society.

Another landmark part of the function was that the Minister inaugurated a high-speed Braille embosser procured through a grant of about Rs. 80 lakh from the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. The embosser obtained from Belgium would produce reading material for the blind at the astounding speed of 2000 Braille pages per hour. It would go a long way in enabling AICB to meet reading requirements for the blind children and adults.

On the occasion, AICB also launched its Scheme of running Braille libraries at 10 different locations in the Hindi speaking regions covering Delhi, Ludhiana, Ranchi, Raipur, Jaipur, Varanasi, Karvi (Chitrakoot), Patna, Indore & Faridabad. The Scheme is supported by Amway Opportunity Foundation, a CSR arm of Amway India Enterprises. Similarly, AICB initiated another scheme at the function under which Braille versions of four mainstream Children’s magazines in Hindi will be provided free of cost to institutions for the blind in the Hindi speaking states. The magazines are Nandan, Chakmak, Balhans and Chandamama.

Some of the other major highlights of the function were:

  • Presentation of a Judo performance and an enthralling group dance by the children of the Confederation’s special school for the blind located in Behrampur Village, Gurgaon District.
  • Giving away of Awards to outstanding blind persons securing first position among visually impaired students at CBSE’s class 12th examination 2016, a student securing first position at M.Phil examination in the country and a V.I. girl selected for Central Civil Services through the UPSC test and interview.
  • Presentation of laptops with screen readers to seven visually impaired girls pursuing higher education.

In addition, AICB had conducted on 3rd January, 2017 All India Braille reading and writing competitions in which students from 24 institutions representing 13 States had participated. It had also organized a nationwide Braille essay writing competition in four languages—Hindi, English, Marathi and Tamil for which a total of over 100 entries were received.

Prizes and awards worth Rs.3 Lakh were presented at the function for the aforesaid competitions and accomplishments.

In their addresses, the Chief Guest, Sh. Gurjar and Sh. Ashwini Choubey lauded the work being done by AICB and promised full support for its activities.

(J.L. KAUL)

SECRETARY GENERAL

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