Today(November5,2015;Thursday), I chaired a session on Draft Policy on Employment and employability of the Persons with Disabilities in Rai Umanath Bali Auditorium Hall,Kaisar Bagh ,Lucknow.It was organised by Sparc India, a small NGO run by Amitabh Mehrotra and his other associates , for the welfare and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
When I entered the Jai Shankar Prasad Hall , I found three groups of young boys and girls , discussing various aspects of proposed policy for enhancing the employability and employment of persons with disabilities.Then the three groups made brief presentations, each on five different aspects of the subject in hand.
The whole experience was very touching and inspiring.Amitabh himself has some disability related to cerebral palsy.But this dedicated band of young persons under his leadership came up with ideas and suggestions about what the proposed policy should contain .What impressed me most was their honesty of purpose and a strong hope that some of their recommendations will be accepted by state government of Uttar Pradesh and government of India.Hovering between my cynicism in the political establishment and the faith and hope of this youth , I gave them ,(what I thought,)helpful suggestions.That a good policy must be evidence-based, it should have a connect with reality,it should be politically acceptable,it needs advocacy, lobbying , persuasion and involvement of all stakeholders.But still ,this experience brought home to me the power of pure and innocent efforts by ordinary citizens to give voice and articulation to the millions of voiceless persons with disabilities , in Uttar Pradesh and India.I hope ,that state government of Uttar Pradesh and government of India will soon make some good and implementable policy to increase the share of persons with disabilities in employment from present 1% to 3%(as needed by the share of their population) Well done ,Amitabh.
2 comments:
great
Thank you.
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