International Day of Disabled Persons Today: Specially challenged youth still waiting for Aasra

Rajendranagar: When the whole world is celebrating the International Disabled Day on Thursday, Imtiaz (25), a mentally retarded youth from Rajendranagar, is waiting with bated breath to get his SADAREM (Software for Assessment of Disabled for Access Rehabilitation and Empowerment) certificate that has not been issued so far, even though his parents have applied almost an year ago. The certificate is essential to get the Aasra pension from the government.

The objective of the SADAREM initiative is to create a Dynamic Web enable system for comprehensive access, rehabilitation and empowerment, through automation, capacity building, assessment of persons with disabilities (PWDs) and maintaining Decision Support System (DSS). A government lists SADAREM ICT solution features as follows: Scientific assessment of degree of the disability is done on the basis of methods and formulas prescribed in the Gazette 2001 issued by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India; Generation of a computer based Disability Certificate with unique ID along with Identity Card; Assessment of needs and maintaining the centralised data base; software will also generate all the details including the support services that the disabled persons are entitled, based on the need assessment and a record of the services provided from time to time. The database thus generated will be hosted in the Public Domain to enable service providers to reach out to the disabled persons.

"It was almost a year when we approached Kondapur Hospital for medical examination of Imtiaz, but have not got the certificate yet. Earlier. we got the disability certificate from the Medical Board, Institute of Mental Health, SR Nagar, after great difficulty, but to no avail as we were told that only SADAREM certificate would ensure an Aasra pension. Officials at GHMC office in Rajendranagar directed us to Kondapur. When approached, the staff at Kondapur said the whole process was made only to approach the local Mee Seva centre and secure the appointment date for medical examination. However, people at the center said the site was not active for time being. This has been happening since the last one year," said a displeased Zahida Begum, mother of Imtiaz.

Explaining that there are around 25 lakh Divyan people, divided into 21 categories according to nature of disability, in the State, Gorenkala Narsimha, president, National Platform for the Rights of Disabled (NPRD), said "Of total 781,317 Divyang people in the State with SADAREM certificate, only 495,058 are getting Aasra pensions. This shows the stark contrast between the beneficiaries and the deprived disabled people." Still there are 286,259 disabled not getting pensions in the State despite securing the SADAREM certificate" rued Narsimha.

"Officials and staff at UCD section in Rajendranagar don't give a hoot to issues concerning Divyang persons. Only on the World Disabled Day, they become active only to celebrate with distribution of wheelchairs, auxiliary crutches and sticks. The government washed off its hands by providing Aasra pensions, sans paying heed to other issues faced by the disabled," said Shaikh Mahboob, president, Pattana Vikalangula Samakya, Hyderabad.