India has a special portal-punarbhava-- for disabled

New Delhi, Mar 12 : To help make the world a better place for persons with disability,a comprehensive national interactive portal - punarbhava.in -was launched here today.

The portal -which means rehabilitation -- was launched by the Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Dr. Shakeel Ahmed along with Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar.

On the occasion, Dr. Ahmed said: "My Ministry is committed to serve the disadvantaged in the country in order to build an inclusive society, and this of course includes persons with disability. Initiatives like this help in building a strong society that knows how to take care of its people".

This is the first ever initiative in India where two Government of India organizations have joined hands for reaching the un-reached and providing them opportunities to fully participate in the social life and become productive members of society.

This unique web portal by Media Lab Asia and Rehabilitation Council of India is likely to make it easier for persons with disabilities, their parents, NGOs, community members, rehabilitation professionals and a variety of other individuals associated with disabled to access information on Government Acts or National policies on disability, institutions working in this field, assistive devices available, educational courses and employment opportunities.

The portal is categorized mainly into three segments: the first segment will be a National Disability Register that will give statistical information on the disabled population in India.

The second segment of the portal covers the resources, which include available online courses, catalogues knowledge repository of audio, video and Braille files in Indian languages, books related to disability and news magazine.

The third segment is proposed to have Grievance Redressal mechanism through Web Court. In future, this will redress the complaints related to Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, National Trust, and Rehabilitation Council of India . It also proposes to provide transaction assistance.

Dr. Ahmed also released a screen reading software - SAFA (Screen Access for All) for the education and computer literacy of visually impaired.

ANI