SHILLONG: The Association of Disabled People, Meghalaya, has claimed inconsistencies in the way the State Government is implementing schemes for disabled persons, resulting in a large number of such people being deprived of benefits due to them.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Celine Lawai, general secretary the Association of Disabled People, Meghalaya, said the Government asks its employees to be guarantors for the schemes sanctioned by the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation.
“Many of us do not know Government employees who can act as guarantors for us,” she told reporters.
While asking the Government to include persons with disabilities (PWDs) in all the development activities in the State, she reminded that that the PWDs want to be at par with everyone else in the society.
She also said that there are different terminologies used to address disabled persons but they prefer to be referred to as PWDs, while adding that the term was coined in 1992 when India ratified the UN Convention on the rights of disabled people.
Meanwhile, president of the Association, Elkin Rynniaw, lamented that most of the schools in the State did not have trained teachers to teach PWDs.
He also affirmed the Association’s commitment to continue working for the development of PWDs in the State.
