He may not have sight, but has vision

New Delhi, Feb 4: This Gujarat Commissioner is completely blind since birth but he knows where the shoe pinches.

Bhaskar Mehta is appreciative of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for having appointed a disabled person like him as the full-fledged Commissioner for Persons With Disabilities (PWD), and he is bursting with ideas for the betterment of people with severe disabilities in the state.

Undeterred by his visual impairment, Mehta made a power point presentation at the two-day State Commissioners' Meeting on 'Empowerment of Differently Abled'' which concluded here yesterday.

Armed with the mandate to implement the provisions of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, Mehta said one or two national level institutes for the disabled should be started by the Centre in Gujarat as there is no such institute in the state.

''The disabled community of Gujarat wants national-level institutes in the state so that they can take advantage of those institutes and make progress,'' he said, pointing out that the state government had recently started an institute for people with severe disabilities at Dagod, a backward district.

Gujarat has a separate Social Justice and Empowerment Department for activities pertaining to the disabled and a Commissioner, having the rank of a Secretary, for monitoring the activities.

In the field of education, he said three per cent seats in all educational institutions have been reserved for the disabled and there are a total of 116 special schools having a student strength of around 8906. These include 28 schools for the visually impaired, 31 for hearing impaired and 38 for mentally retarded children.

There are 25 institutions training special teachers for the disabled in 45 courses at the certificate, diploma and degree levels located across the state. A special ITI for disabled women has also been set up at Vadodara.

Mehta said an important activity of his department includes monitoring of the NGO-managed schools. During 2005-06, 6912 visually impaired, 4173 dead and dumb, 13,810 mentally retarded and 16,068 orthopaedically handicapped students were covered under it. ''The government has diverted the services of the highest level of officers and ministers to encourage educational activities for all children, including the disabled,'' he said.

With regard to employment, he pointed out that the Gujarat government has provided one per cent reservation in private factories where the strength of employees is more than 100 and three per cent in primary teachers' recruitment.

Six 'Special Melas' for promotion of employment opportunities for the disabled are varranged by involving industries. Last year, a total of 936 disabled people attended these fairs and 543 got jobs.

Mr Mehta informed that the state government has special employment exchanges for the disabled people at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Junagarh and Mehsana. Also, no application fee is charged from the disabled people for government jobs.

He said the government has also ensured three per cent reservation in all poverty alleviation schemes.

Under the 'Sant Surdas Scheme', the goverment has alloted Rs 261.09 lakh to the disabled whose diability is more than 75 per cent and are below the poverty line.

Expressing satisfaction over the Gujarat government's initiatives, he said the State Coordination Committee, State Executive Committee and District Coordination Committees had already been put in place under the PWD Act, 1995.

''As a disabled person, I can realise the actual problems of the disabled,'' he said.

There is a provision in the Disability Act, 1995 which enables the government to appoint a disabled person, having good knowledge and practical experience in the field of rehabilitation of the disabled as a Disability Commissioner.

The Gujarat Chief Minister seems to have set a precedent by appointing Mehta to a post where his contribution has been phenomenal.

UNI