DEHRADUN: The National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (Divyangjan), Dehradun has been helping persons with disabilities, especially visually impaired people to get through the global epidemic adversely affecting lives of millions across the country and world.
Over 1.23 lakh have been benefitted from the initiatives of the institution across various parts of the country from June 2020 to August 14, 2020.
NIEPVD director Dr Himanghshu Das said, "Persons with disabilities (PWDs) need special care so along with them it is important that people around them in family and society also need training as well as sensitization to help PWDs and conduct themselves in a manner to not marginalize these people."
The institution has organized over 350 online training programmes, sensitization drives, workshops, webinars, online courses for 'Divyang' students, their teachers, families and other people to train and equip them with understanding to tackle the ongoing era of chaos brought in by COVID-19.
Online training programmes, webinars , sessions for teachers teaching students with special needs included plethora of topics with a wide range such as orientation and mobility skills for the visually impaire person, assistive technologies for the persons with visual impairment, online teaching learning classes theory and practical, preparation of practical teaching learning material, guidance and counseling, teaching children with visual and hearing impairment, activities for children with visual impairment during lockdown period, online quiz & tests in special education, cyber security for persons with visual disabilities, implication of COVID pandemic on physical & mental health along with numerous others with 374 such training programmes, sessions, webinars and other activities.
Pragya Mishra, a visually impaired Divyang who attended the training session on mental health, special needs and importance of physical activities said, "All the training sessions as well as webinars were of great value and immense help. These are hard times and such programmes help us get through."
The institution, part from catering to various institutes for Divyangs is also helping government run schools where students with any kind of impairment raging visual to hearing problems study.
The officials have included schools from various states including Uttarakhand under 'Samgra Shiksha Abhiyan', a government initiative to provide education to children ranging from pre-nursery to class XII "holistically without segmentation".
Lal Chand, a government school teacher from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh said, "The seasons have been a great value for us, especially in the times of epidemic. We are able to cater to every student including those with special need and care."
Some of the prominent institutions associated with the initiatives are from Kolkata, Secunderabad, Kerala, Gorakhpur, Bhuvaneshvar, Chennai and multiple others.
According to a survey released last year conducted by National Statistical Office, over 21 million people in India are suffering from one or other kind of disability. The survey which covered 1.18 lakh households revealed that around 2.2 per cent of Indians are suffering from some kind of disability.