Break the Barriers, Open the Doors
A one day workshop on awareness about United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD) was conducted by Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs (HESPN) enabling unit, in collaboration with the National Institute for Visually Handicapped (NIVH), held at convention cum cultural centre, Pondicherry University on 25th January, 2014.
The students, scholars and faculty from PU and the students of Govt. Law College were present at the function. The keynote speech was delivered by Neeraja Chandra Mohan, Director of National Institute of Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEMPD). The function was felicitated by Sri Raajiv Yaduvanshi, IAS, Registrar and Dr. R Nalini, HOD, department of Social Work, Pondicherry Univeristy.
Activists from Chennai, who are people with disabilities, took different sessions on various topics relating to UNCRPD. These sessions provided the people with an insight about the basic rights of persons with disabilities. These sessions were handled by people from ‘Equals’, a social welfare organization for the disabled. During the course of the session the participants were informed rightly about UNCRPD. The classes were taken by Ms. Meenakshi, Ms. Muthuchelvi (Bank of Allahabad), T M N Deepak, Rajiv Rajan and Ram Kumar Social Work, Pondicherry University.
Ram Kumar is the first visually challenged PhD scholar from Pondicherry University. His disability was in no way a hindrance for him in achieving his goals. There are many more people like him, who overcome their disabilities and achieve their goals.
Many opined that the reason behind the discrimination of the disabled people occurs because they are unaware of their rights. Disabled people do not expect charity from others, but they should be accepted with dignity in the society. The purpose of the UNCRPD is to ensure that people with disability are able to exercise their fundamental rights like anybody else. The article emphasizes on equality and non discrimination before law for the disabled. It also refers to the identification of obstacles and making everything accessible for the disabled, including the roads, buildings, schools and other indoor – outdoor facilities.
Many questions on integrity, judiciary support, women rights etc came up in the discussions followed by the sessions. Certificates were distributed for the participants of the workshop.
Photo: Akhila CK
Camera: Akhila CK and Habeeb Rahman YP
Voice-over: Swathy Karthik
Editing: Akhila CK
Swathy Karthik
1st M.A. Mass Communication
