National summit and youth festival for Divyang

By: INN, Chennai, @infodeaofficial;

To analyse the needs of adults and kids with multiple disabilities (Divyang) and address the support system and services available them,National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD) organised the first National Summit for Parents and National Youth Festival (NYF) 2017 from August 3-5 at NIEPMD, Chennai.
The National Trust, New Delhi presented its schemes and provision of the Act to family members, National Handicapped Finance Development Corporation (NHFDC) highlighted the various schemes and opportunities available for persons with disabilities in higher education and employment and various other stakeholders participated at the summit.
The summit helped to learn strategies for coping up and creating an environment for better quality of health and living, to create awareness on various technology advancement, networking facilities that would enable employment opportunities and enhance independent living skills, to create awareness on provisions and entitlements of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 for persons with disabilities and disseminate information along with a platform for parents to develop self-confidence and advocacy skills for their children and lastly, to develop co-curricular activities in youth with disabilities.
The chief guest and chairperson of the summit, IAS M P Nirmala said that there need to be more public partnership to conduct many more events like this. The director of NIEPMD, Himanshu Das said that inspite of all the challenges they are working hard for the benefit of person with multiple disabilities. The only aim of the organization is to create awareness among the parents.
About 300 participants (Persons with Multiple Disabilities along with their parents) from all over the country representing 23 states participated at the summit. The participants of National Youth Festival for Individuals with Multiple Disabilities were individuals with multiple disabilities who arrived along with their parents from various parts of the country.
The youth festival aimed to propagate the concept of national integration, spirit of communal harmony, brotherhood, soft skills, interpersonal skill, courage and adventure amongst the youth by exhibiting their abilities in a common platform. Along with them students of various special training centre in and around Tamil Nadu also participated.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting – Songs and Drama division performed a cultural event and in order to create awareness across the country a Documentary Film of the mega events and service provision for persons with multiple disabilities was done with the support of Pondicherry University, Puducherry.
This summit also highlighted the need for convergence of various Ministries such as Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Labour and Employment and role of Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) in carry forwarding the rights for persons with disabilities.