Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee
Engaging Persons with Disability
As per Census 2011 there are 2,68,10,557 persons
(1,49,86,202 male, 1,18,24,355 female) with disability in the country. The number
was little over 21 million as per 2001
Census. This is equivalent to little over 2 per cent of the population.
Among the types of disabilities on which data has been
collected, disability In seeing at 48.5% emerges as the top category. Others in
sequence are: In movement (27.9%), Mental (10.3%), In speech (7.5%), and In
hearing (5.8%).
Though there are people with
disabilities who have excelled in their chosen field, generally in India
persons with disability are considered to be a burden on the family and on the
society. This needs to be changed.
The society and the State must support this process of empowerment of
the persons with disability.
This could be done in two ways. I call it push and pull effort.
The society should create an enabling environment for the persons with
disability. For long they have been treated either with contempt or with
extreme sympathy. Between the two extreme forms of attitudes- the disabled -
has lost its identity as a person. Therefore the first thing that a society
should provide is an enabling environment. This could be in the form of a
changed attitude towards the disabled, or in the form of providing facilities
for smooth movement, access to workplaces, design of disabled-friendly
buildings and public facilities. This I call the ‘push’ factor.
The ‘pull’ factor relate to providing them with opportunities to realise
their potential. Reservation in job is one such way. The government sector has
such reservation in place. The private sector should be encouraged to provide
some such facilities or access points.
Spring
As winter turns to spring, new leaves sprout on
leafless trees. The barren and desolate looking tree suddenly looks green. And
in a matter of days, the colour of the green changes from light to deep. Like a
frail little girl turning into a full bosomed gorgeous woman – it changes and
how!
It happens
every year and every year it amazes me. Every new sprouting leaf is a harbinger
of new life, symbolising the continuity of life.
Photo: Ashok Panda
All about Booze
India
is an amazing country, for many reasons. One of the reasons is the way we treat
booze. In some states of the country, it is summarily banned. It some states it
flows like water. Though it finds mention in ancient scriptures (some of which
say that even Gods used to take it with pleasure), booze is generally despised
in conservative society. But interestingly, in private a large section of
people enjoy it. Whether this shows the hypocrisy of the society or this is how
a society should negotiate something which taken in large quantity can do
public harm- is a debatable point.
All
those who want to know more about booze, read about it in the cover story of
National Geographic Magazine, Feb 2017 issue. I am amazed to know that it has
been around for the last 9000 years, that is roughly 7000 thousand years BC.
And it is there in practically all the countries of the world.
Tailpiece
Ek motor
cycle me husband wife and do bachhe
Six
seater auto me 14 Sawari
Ten
seater jeep me 25 log
Firty two
seater bus me 152 log
Sevety
nine ke train ke dibbe me 300 log
And
Ek rocket
par 104 satellite
Achambha
duniya ke liye ho sakta hai, hamare liye to roj ka baat hai.
Salute
ISRO
Mera
Bharat Mahan.
(Recreated from a Social Media post)
19.2.17
***
Mrinal
Chatterjee, a journalist-turned- media academician works and lives in
Dhenkanal, Odisha. He can be contacted at mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment