GUWAHATI, Sept 19 - The State�s social welfare department has surveyed 25 government buildings, including the State Secretariat, as part of Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan of the Centre to provide facilities making them accessible to persons with disabilities (PwDs).
Deputy Director (women & child welfare) U Das said the survey of the 25 buildings was carried out as first phase of the project.
Various amenities, including lifts, ramps, signages, toilets etc., will be built in these buildings, making them accessible to persons with disabilities.
�Survey reports of nine buildings have been sent to the Central government. The Centre has provided its report on the survey. It will be now sent to the PWD (Buildings) for making the plan and estimate. It will then go to the State government before being forwarded to the Centre for sanction,� she told The Assam Tribune.
Das admitted that all the surveyed buildings utterly lacked the infrastructure to support persons with disabilities. There are around 4,80,065 PwDs in the State.
Das said even important private buildings, besides public places will be covered under the project in phases. All the districts would be covered phase-wise, she said.
The objective of the campaign is to integrate persons with disabilities in society so that they can actively participate in society and lead a normal life. Ideally, a disabled person should be able to commute between home, workplace and other destinations with independence, convenience and safety.�
The Central government had asked state governments to identify about 50 to 100 public buildings in big cities and also identify citizen-centric public websites to make them accessible to PwDs.
The project is being supported by the Scheme of Implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act (SIPDA), an umbrella scheme run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) for implementing various initiatives for social and economic empowerment of PwDs.
