WB govt to mainstream marginalised sections of society

Kolkata, Mar 25 (UNI) Union Social Justice and Empowerment minister Meira Kumar today said that the department was trying to mainstream the marginalized sections of the socieity.

Speaking at the 104th Annual General Meeting of Merchants' Chamber of Commerce (MCC) here, Ms Kumar said, ''We will help people belonging to the Scheduled Casts, Backward classes, aged persons and people with disability." '' Our main objective is to empower the target groups through educational, economic and social development,'' she added.

The Centre has undertaken a number of programmes and schemes to assist people across various disabilities and has set up six national level institutions, she added.

''The SCs and STs are employed at the shop floor level. However they are hardly visible at the management level. There is a pool of talent available of persons belonging to SCs and STs who have been educated in the best institutions of the country such as the Indian Institutes of Management, IITs and other engineering colleges,'' She added.

''From last year we have started a scheme to award scholarships to students with disabilities studying in professional courses. My ministry is distributing aids and appliances free of charge to the needy people with disabilities through various government and non-governmental organizations,'' she added.

The state ministry was also collaborating with the Union ministry of Human Resource Development in the task of giving aids and appliances to children with disabilities studying in general schools.

UNI JYN PC SS/RD1548