COIMBATORE: The TN RIGHTS project, functioning under the Department of Welfare for Differently-Abled Persons, has launched a Social Registry Enrollment (SRE) census to identify persons with disabilities (PwD) in eight additional districts, including Coimbatore, Erode and Salem in the western region.
The state is implementing the TN RIGHTS project, supported by World Bank funds, to strengthen the differently-abled department’s ability to promote inclusion, accessibility, and opportunities for people with disabilities. The focus of the project is to enhance social protection systems for them. As part of these efforts, the department is conducting area-wise SRE census to assist the government in improving the management of services for beneficiaries, and the drive was launched on Monday.
This initiative is designed to collect data on disabled people across all blocks, town panchayats, municipalities and Coimbatore corporation. Volunteers will visit every household to identify PWDs.
P Sundareswaran, project officer for TN RIGHTS in Coimbatore district, said they have appointed 200 volunteers who will meet targeted individuals in 20 blocks, with 12 blocks located in rural areas and 4 blocks covering corporation and municipality limits.
“The data collected will include information on education, livelihood opportunities, accessibility to government welfare schemes, therapy services and more. This initiative aims to compile comprehensive data on disabled individuals, helping to establish the exact population of PWDs in the district,” he said.
“Currently, this survey is underway in Chennai, Cuddalore, Tiruchy and Tenkasi districts. In the second phase, the census has been extended to Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi, Thanjavur, Perambalur and Thiruvallur,” he added.
Sundareswaran said the social registry will serve as a one-stop solution for extending welfare, financial and other services to PWDs as it covers around 67 questions.
“A census of PWDs was conducted a few years ago through the Mahalir Thittam, achieving approximately 72% progress. We will utilise those findings for this census.We estimate that there are more than 13 lakh people across the state.
However, we lack accurate data on PWDs, and we hope this area-wise survey will provide exact data about the population. Based on the findings, the government can design its welfare schemes tailored to the community,” Sundareswaran added.