Thiruvananthapuram: Vice-President Hamid Ansari said that the allocation and utilization of funds for persons with special needs, and the social awareness for their integration and care, remained inadequate in the country. He, however, lauded the ‘Anuyatra’ project for the disabled initiated by the State Government. “The initiatives taken by the State Government under its “Anuyatra” - or walking together campaign - for the persons with special needs, with over 20 strategic interventions having objectives ranging from prevention of disability to sustainable self-reliant rehabilitation and economic empowerment, is a laudable effort,” the Vice President said while inaugurating the project here on Monday.
The Vice President termed the state’s approach to public education as “progressive and innovative”. “One aspect of it is education of children with disabilities,” he said. The various activities of 'Anuyatra' project range from primary prevention mechanisms to individual care plans and health insurance schemes to innovations in disability management. “Disability is an important public health problem, especially in developing societies like ours. It is likely to remain a major policy consideration because of increase in non-communicable diseases and change in age structure with an increase in life expectancy,” the Vice President said.
He said that majority of the persons with special needs in the country resided in rural areas where accessibility, availability, and utilization of rehabilitation services and its cost-effectiveness were the major issues to be considered. “Research on disability burden, appropriate intervention strategies and their implementation is still at a nascent stage,” he said. A UN supported survey had estimated that in our country, 1.67 percent of the population in the age bracket 0-19 has special needs and that 35.29 percent of all people living with special needs are children. “Other estimates similarly contend that India has about 12 million children with special needs but only 1 percent of such children have access to school,” the Vice President said. In the state, it is estimated that three percent, or 7.93 lakh persons, of the total population are in the differently-abled category.
