Disability register at urban, rural levels: official

MANGALORE: In a move aimed at getting exact number of persons suffering from disabilities of various kinds, the state commissioner for persons with disabilities K V Rajanna has proposed to the state government to set up disability register both at urban and rural levels. This move, likely to become functional from December 2011 will bring on board both urban local bodies (ULBs) and gram panchayats in the task of creating awareness about the issue of disability.
In an informal chat with reporters on the sidelines of a function to inaugurate day care centre for challenged persons at Kokkada near here on Sunday, Rajanna said his office has mooted the idea of having village disability register at gram panchayat level and similar record in ULBs.Task of creating awareness and encouraging people with any disability to voluntarily register their names rests with village rehabilitation, and anganwadi workers, and PDOs.
At the urban level, Rajanna said BBMP has come forward to set up such a register with the help of non-governmental organizations. Based on the success that BBMP achieves in creating and maintaining such a register, this initiative would then be rolled out in other ULBs, he said. Noting that such an initiative is non-existent across India for the present, he said the only state that has some reliable data on people with disabilities is Chhattisgarh.
A format would be developed to train people given the task of creating awareness among people with disabilities. At the urban level, the plan is to have ward wise data, he said adding that data is essential to formulate schemes aimed at helping people with disabilities. We are found wanting on the data front, which also proves to be a bottleneck in sanctioning funds to undertake effective rehabilitation programmes for persons with disabilities, he noted.
The ministers for women and child welfare and panchayati raj and rural development C C Patil, and Jagadish Shettar respectively have approved the idea of setting up the disability register, he said, adding that once the register is complete, National Informatics Centre would be asked to develop a software which would then be used to issue smart cards to such people. The smart card would have details on the history and nature of the disability, he noted.