With an aim to develop trained manpower for rehabilitation and development of the person with disabilities, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot  launched a six-month Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) Programme on rehabilitation for the sector here on Wednesday.

Gehlot said the course has been developed in collaboration with Melbourne University  to ensure  empowerment and inclusiveness of the people with disabilities in the society. “Due to the pandemic situation, the requirement of first hand counsellor/guide for Divyangjan has become further relevant and there is a need to roll out this programme  as early as possible,” he said.

The programme was launched in the presence of Union Minister of State, SJ&E, Krishan Pal Gurjar,  Australian High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell;  High Commissioner of India to Australia,  Manpreet Vohra, Secretary DEPwD, Anjali Bhawra and Vice Chancellor of Melbourne University Professor  Duncan Maskell .

Gurjar said, “This programme will be first of its kind which will create trained manpower in identifying risk cases, apprising the parents/guardians about the nearest early intervention centres, and guiding them for availing Government benefits for the sector.”

Bhawra  talked about the shortage of trained manpower to serve as a link between the PwDs, their parents and the community for Government Schemes and Programmes and expressed hopes that the CBID programme will go a long way in generating trained human resources to carry out the important task.

The Rehabilitation Council of India and University of Melbourne have been working on this program since the last two years. The Department will involve all the States/UTs in future expansion of this program , the Secretary said.

The course will be initially launched on a pilot basis for two batches in seven national institutes of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and some voluntary organisations having experience in the field. Initially the programme will be available in English, Hindi and seven regional languages, namely, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Garo. The classes are expected to commence by August while mode of training for this course would be both offline/online taking into account the prevailing Covid scenario, said an official from the Ministry
Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2021/india/govt-brings-community-based-plan-to-rehabilitate-pwds.html