Eastern Sentinel

Economic and social inclusion of people with disabilities

4th Dec 2021 10:12:PM Editorials

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities was celebrated across Arunachal on December 3 with plethora of programmes to raise awareness on people living with disabilities.

The IDPD is observed to promote the rights and well-being of people with disabilities at every level of society and development. Additionally, it also aims to raise awareness of the situations of persons with disabilities in all aspects of political, social, economic and cultural life.

People living with disabilities often find themselves on the fringes of mainstream society because of a lack of participative inclusion in social and economic fields. This has resulted in a dependency syndrome which the differently abled aren't able to shrug off readily. The nearly two year long pandemic has also made matters worse.

The United Nations says that the global crisis of COVID-19 is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing the extent of exclusion and highlighting that work on disability inclusion is imperative. People with disabilities—one billion people— are one of the most excluded groups in our society and are among the hardest hit in this crisis in terms of fatalities.

The IDPD must not only be celebrated as a symbolic gesture one day in a year but there is need for people to remind themselves constantly so that behavioural changes lead to a more differently abled inclusive society. Including people with disabilities in the social fold and ensuring their economic sustainability is crucial for their empowerment. There is an urgent need to make them financially empowered and government and society must work in this field. Many social welfare schemes are seldom utilised because of a lack of awareness, this is a field where the government must step up to ensure benefits reach the target beneficiaries.

The true realisation of IDPD will be when students are taught in their early years about compassion towards their differently-abled classmates; When we build ramps in every building and treat people with disabilities with respect not sympathy.

Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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