A fake disability certificate for obtaining national scholarship for persons with disabilities has been found, Manipur Social Welfare director Ng Uttam said at a one-day seminar on ‘Rights of differently abled women’ in Imphal.
The seminar was organised by the Manipur State Commission for Women sponsored by the National Commission for Women, at GM Hall, Imphal, Friday.
FIR will be lodged for taking up appropriate legal action against those persons who submitted fake disability certificates for National Scholarship of disability, Uttam said.
The department can identify fake certificates easily, he said, adding that after completing the verification of applicants, action will be taken up, he added.
Regarding the rights of women with disabilities, Uttam said there is Rights of PWD Act 2016 for protection of their rights.
Under the Act, the Social Welfare department has taken up steps for providing inclusive education to blind, deaf and locomotive disability persons, he said. Under the Act, 5 per cent reservation was provided for disabled persons on admission, job recruitment and in every government scheme, he added.
Expressing serious concern over crime against women and violation of rights, Uttam said that awareness should be provided to both males and females together as crimes or violation offences by both male and female. Rules or laws or legal action for violation of rights or crime should be made aware to both male and female to provide rights for women, he said.
He said that to obtain a unique ID of a differently abled person, only 11,000 differently abled persons submitted for the ID and 7000 unique ID cards were provided.
In all, there are 30,000 above differently abled persons in the state. A unique ID card is necessary to obtain government schemes benefits, he added.
Uttam also said that a PwD can approach the SDC for any complaint and all should work without violating rights of PwDs. He appealed to the transport department to take action on travel concessions both in private and public transport for PwDs.
Manipur State Commission for Women chairperson Salam Ulka Devi said that the role of family members is more important than the outside environment role given by NGOs or Civil Society Organisation to PwDs. Mental well being is important to every human being but more so to PwDs. There are various rights and legal frameworks for protection of rights of PwDs. They are not disability, they are differently abled because they can do many things that they cannot do, she added.
Other resource persons included Takhellambam Anita, Moirangthem Sunita, Chaithu Sonia Aimol and Chungkham Pishakmacha. The seminar was also attended by MSCW members, Thumlip Tiningpham Monsang, Lourembam Dayabati and T Chongsin Koireng.
