Nongpoh, December 12: Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar launched the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana and distributed Physical Aids and Assisted Living Devices to senior citizens under the scheme at Nongpoh, Ri Bhoi today. Ri Bhoi is the first district in the Northeast where this fully-funded Central government scheme has been started.
The minister in his speech informed the gathering that the Vayoshri Scheme aims at providing citizens above 60 years, belonging to BPL category and suffering from any of the age related disability/infirmity, viz. low vision, hearing impairment, loss of teeth and locomotor disability, with such assisted-living devices which can restore near normalcy in their bodily functions. The devices are being distributed in camp mode and a total of six such camps will be held across Meghalaya.
Speaking of the high standard of manufacturing of the devices, the minister said that the assistive devices are of highest quality and conform to the standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards, wherever applicable. Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO), a PSU under the ministry, is manufacturing the devices and all this has been possible because of the Make in India initiative of the Prime Minister of India, he added. He said,“ The dream of the Prime Minister’s Make in India campaign has been fulfilled by our ministry as, after the formation of the present government, these wheelchairs, walking sticks and other devices which had erstwhile been manufactured in England are now being manufactured at ALIMCO in Kanpur”.
The minister also informed the gathering about the other notable schemes which his ministry has initiated for the Divyangs. He took special mention of the initiative of the government for cochlear implant surgeries, free of cost, for children under 5 years suffering with hearing disabilities. The surgery had been beyond the reach of many poor parents as the entire procedure of cochlear implant surgery costs around Rs 6 lakh. But now under the scheme, the central government pays up the entire cost for every implantation, which includes cost of cochlear implant, surgery and speech therapy.
Many poor children with hearing deformity have got a new lease of life under the scheme, the minister added. The minister also informed the gathering that under the scheme such surgeries have also been conducted in the Northeast; and as many as 1000 children have been benefitted from the scheme. The minister urged the officials of the government of Meghalaya present in the meeting to conduct a survey of the state to find out the number of children who have hearing disability and which could be corrected by cochlear implant. The minister assured that his ministry will incur the entire expense of the surgery once the survey has been done.
The minister also took mention of the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) launched by the Government of India on Dec 3, 2015 with the idea of providing common accessibility and barrier-free access for persons with disabilities. He also said that the campaign would educate individuals and institutions on the need for providing barrier-free access to persons with disabilities. Under the campaign, the ministry has initiated the venture to make 100 buildings in each of 50 cities across the country to make accessible for divyangs including railways, buses and toilets in government establishments.
The minister also informed the gathering that the government has brought a bill in Lok Sabha in 2016 for differently abled people, raising their reservation in government jobs from 3 per cent to 4 per cent, in education from 3 per cent to 5 per cent and increased the type of disabilities from erstwhile 7 to 21 types so that more and more disabled people get benefits of the scheme of the government. He also said that his ministry had started providing provides motorised cycle to people with 80 per cent disabilities. The minister has called for spreading of awareness among the people so that the differently abled people are adequately benefitted by the new schemes of the government. The minister informed the people that since last 3 years more than 5500 camps were organised across the country and more than 8 lakh divyangs have been benefitted from such camps. The government has spent more than Rs 800 crore for distributing aids among divyangs in such camps, he added. These efforts reiterate the commitment of the government of India for the welfare of the differently-abled people of the country, he added.
The minister concluded his speech with an assurance that his ministry will provide all kinds of assistance for the welfare of the people of the state. The meeting was also attended by Minister PHE etc Government of Meghalya Dr Celestine Lyngdoh, Chairman & Managing Director of ALIMCO Shri D R Sarin and senior officials of Government of Meghalaya.
