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Orissa dist scheme to empower disabled rated best by Centre…..Debabrata Mohanty
‘Window of Hope’- Ganjam DC gets award from President Pratibha Patil A unique scheme that empowers people with disabilities economically, while freeing them from the tyranny of lower bureaucracy in Orissa’s coastal Ganjam district, has been adjudged the best among all the districts in the country by the Union Ministry of Social Justice.
Ganjam District Collector Krishan Kumar on Saturday received the award from President Pratibha Patil during the distribution of National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2011.
Started in 2006, the programme called Window of Hope identifies all people with disabilities within a definite time-frame, empowers them with improved access to services, extends facilities of corrective surgery to them, aid and appliances in a free, fair, friendly, transparent and time-bound manner so as to enable them to exercise their fundamental right of living a life of dignity.
Started by the then Ganjam District Collector V K Pandian, the district disability rehabilitation centre in association with Health, Education, Women and Child Development Departments, Panchayati Raj institutions, MLAs, MPs, banks and other associations including those working for the welfare of PWDs, worked harmoniously to give them disability certificates as well as low-interest loans from banks. Ganjam is the second largest district of Orissa with a PWD population of 2.5 lakh.
“Earlier, it was a nightmarish experience for people with disabilities to travel long distances and get the required certificates. To get a disability certificate, a person with a disability had to appear in person before a medical board, which sat only twice a month at the district headquarters hospital. Through the Window of Hope, the administration could reach people in remote areas,” said a senior government official.
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