Making a history of sorts, the three main
political parties in Himachal Pradesh have finally
recognised disability as an issue which deserves a
mention in their election manifestoes.
During a brainstorming session organsied by the
Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies (SDRS)
today, the leaders of Congress, BJP and CPIM assured that
the rights and opportunities of the disabled will be kept
in mind while framing the manifestoes for the upcoming
Assembly polls.
Though a consensus could not emerge on how the subject
should be treated in their respective manifestoes, member
of the state secretariat of the CPIM Tikender Panwar
emphasised on the need for a macro-level policy to deal
with this issue. He said, “Individual efforts of
voluntary organisations alone will not help; the subject
needs a bigger policy like the ones in health and
education sectors and we would advocate it in our
manifesto.”
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Kuldeep Rathaur and
BJP general secretary Khushi Ram Balnahata denied making
disability a political issue. But, at the same time,
talking in so many words, both agreed on “adding
some element on this subject in their manifestoes.”
Both are members of the manifesto committee of their
parties.
Rathaur said, “Whatever may be the outcome, but
one positive move is that disability will be discussed
for the first time in the Congress manifesto
committee.” Though he kept emphasizing that Congress
has implemented many schemes for the disabled, he,
however, tried to evade some issues by saying that the
implementation has not been good because of communication
gap with the bureaucracy.
On the suggestion of SDRS chairman Ajai Srivastava,
Rathaur agreed that the Congress would contemplate on
forming a separate wing of the disabled in the party.
Balnahata said, “This issue should not be linked
with votes, it needs a sensitive treatment.” When
one of the representatives of voluntary organisation
working for the disabled asked him, “Is it because
the votes of the disabled are not much in the
state,” he denied it. “This subject can better
be related to sensitisation than politics,” he
said.
Source
www.expressindia.com
