The Manipur Hill District Disabled Union (MHDDU) on Friday demanded special doctors in all the hill districts to provide assistance to the PwDs in obtaining the Unique Disability Identification card (UDID)/disability certificates.
Due to discrimination, lack of awareness and accessibility, more than 50 per cent of the PwDs in the hill districts have not obtained the UDID; therefore, the majority of the PwDs in hill districts are not accessible to the various welfare schemes of the government, said MHDDU president Paul Rozarlien while speaking to the media at Manipur Press Club in Imphal.
He said that there are as many as 22,741 PwDs in the hills district of the state as per the census report 2011. However, some districts with high population are having low PwDs percentage due to insensitivity of enumerators though the percentage is higher in reality.
As a result, the number of persons with disabilities is likely to increase if they are identified by following the criteria of 21 categories mentioned in the Act, he added.
The president appealed to the state government to allocate special doctors for assisting all the PwDs in obtaining UDID, with a motive to bring the PwDs of hill districts into the mainstream with equal opportunity and achieve their constitutional rights.
