'Give
avenues to kids with disabilities'
Children with
disabilities and their communities would both benefit if the society focuses on
their potential and not their limitations, according to UNICEF’s annual ‘State
of the World’s Children’ report.
The theme of the report,
which was released here by Social Welfare Minister M K Muneer, is ‘Children
with Disabilities’.
“Children with disabilities
have the same rights as all other children, and should be provided with the
same opportunities,” the Minister said. He mentioned Kerala’s ‘Special
Initiative on Disability’(SID), an integrated project with the Departments of
Health and Education which focuses on neuro developmental disabilities, as a
model for others.
The State of the World’s
Children 2013 report explains, with case studies and individual stories, on how
exclusion affects such children from their first days itself. It states that
they are least likely to receive health care or go to school, making them the
most vulnerable and marginalised group.
Kerala, according to N
Ahmed Pillai, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, has around 8.6
lakh persons with disabilities. Of this, around 2 lakh are children, a majority
of them living in rural areas.
He stated that while
Kerala succeeded in bringing down infant mortality, there is still a long way
to go in bringing down high-risk pregnancies, which increases the chances of
giving birth to children with disabilities. K M Abraham, Principal Secretary,
Social Welfare, emphasised the importance of consulting children with
disabilities in formulating the programmes related to them.
Also
present at the function were Neela Gangadharan, Chairperson of the State
Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and Satish Kumar, Chief of UNICEF
state office for Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
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