Shillong, Dec 03: Association of Disabled People, Meghalaya has requested that they don’t need sympathy they need apathy and want the Government to include them in the entire development programme.
Celine Lawai, General Secretary, Association of Disabled People, Meghalaya said, “We don’t need sympathy we just need your cooperation and cooperation means that we want government to include us in all the developmental programmes, whatever they plans disability must be included.”
The association also said they want to be in mainstream and participate in the activities of the society equally.
“We want to be in mainstream and we want to participate in society on equal basis like others,” she said.
Stating that Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all is the theme for International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2013, Lawai said, “we hope that Government really take initiatives and steps like it will really implement like breaking barriers.”
Raising a question on the implementation of the schemes for disabled by the Government, Association of Disabled People, and Meghalaya said sometime they cannot avail the benefit of the schemes because it is not properly implemented.
“The problem is with the implementation, it is not implemented in a correct way,” she said adding many people don’t get any opportunity to avail the scheme.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Association of Disabled People, Meghalaya General Secretary Celine Lawai said that Government asks Government employees as a guarantor for the schemes of National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation
“Many of us does not have any Government employees who can be guarantor for us,”she told reporters.
She also said that there are different terminologies for disable persons but they preferred to be called as Person with Disability, where person comes first before disability. She said the term came in the year 1992 when India ratified the UN Convention on the rights of disabled people. (SP News)
