Showcause notices issued for delay in survey of Odisha children with disabilities

Bhubaneswar: The department of social security and empowerment of persons with disabilities (SSEPD) has served showcause notices on district social security officers (DSSOs) of six districts for dereliction of duty in conducting a survey to identify children with disabilities.

The errant officers are from Bargarh, Boudh, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Nuapada and Rayagada districts.


For the first time, the department initiated a survey to identify children with disabilities aged 0 to 6 in Odisha to ensure that every such child is covered under the govt’s social security and education net. The survey began this Oct with the help of Anganwadi workers and supervisors, child protection officers and social welfare officers.

However, two-and-a-half-months have passed and the social security officers of the six districts are yet to initiate the survey and provide information on such children to the SSEPD department.

The department has directed all DSSOs to survey children with disabilities in all villages and wards of urban local bodies in the districts by Dec 30.

The officers have also been asked to submit a completion and authentication certificate to the department, ensuring zero rejection of children with disabilities in any Anganwadi centre area from the survey and identification process. Exclusion of even a single child with a disability, if detected subsequently, shall be viewed seriously and appropriate action would be initiated as per rules, the department has warned.

Additional secretary Bhaskar Raito, in his showcause notices to the DSSOs, said SSEPD department has created a specialised portal for entry of data regarding such children. While other districts have started entering their data in the portal, these six districts have failed to do so.

This is the first time the state govt has taken up the task of identifying children with disabilities in the age group of 0 to 6 in all the 30 districts. The only available data on them so far is the Census 2011, which had counted the number of persons with disabilities (PwDs) in the state at 12,44,402.

A senior official of the department said after the identification exercise, steps will be taken to provide early diagnosis and medical support to the children, register them for provision of unique disability IDs and ensure their school enrolment besides other govt welfare schemes.

The anganwadi functionaries under the supervision of DSSOs are helping the department identify children with disabilities across all the 21 categories of disabilities under the Rights to Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The department is providing each anganwadi worker Rs 500 for the survey.





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