SHILLONG: The National Institute for Empowerment for Persons with Multiple Disabilities located at Mutthukadu, Chennai will open up its extension centres in Shillong and other North Eastern cities to enable people with various disabilities to cope up with life.
The cost of setting up of extension centres in all the Northeastern states is over Rs 1 crore.
During the just concluded trip organized by Press Information Bureau in Chennai, the Director of the Institute, Dr Neeradha Chandramohan told a visiting media team from Shillong that as per the plan while the building will be provided by the partner NGO, Bethany Society, the expertise and man power will be provided by the Institute.
The Institute will provide physiotherapists, special educators, psychologists and therapists dealing with multiple disabilities in the extension centres while the NGO will have to provide only the building.
The move of the Institute to have the extension centre with the financial assistance from the Centre will be of help to Meghalaya which does not have a full-fledged centre to deal with multiple disabilities.
“We will soon sign an MOU with the partner NGO in Shillong to open the extension centre, and we have already signed a similar MOU in Tripura,” Dr Chandramohan said.
She said that the Institute will also launch a sensitization programme in Shillong for two days sometime in January aimed at creating awareness on proper rehabilitation of persons with disability.
Around 1500 beneficiaries are expected to take part in the programme, Dr Chandramohan said.
The Institute, established in 2005 under the ministry of social justice and empowerment is a recipient of national award for best accessible website for Persons with Disability (PWD) in 2011 and outstanding work in creation of barrier free environment for PWD in 2012. It serves as a national resource centre for empowerment of persons with many disabilities which include low vision, blindness among others.