Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot Sunday said information technology can enhance the life skills of persons with disabilities, besides improving their communication skills and employment opportunities.
Information and computer technology (ICT) facilitates better access to products and services besides facilitating inclusive education system, he said on the concluding day of the three-day event 'Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities, 2018' held in the national capital.
Gehlot urged participating nations to take steps for enhancing IT skills of youths with disabilities so that they live an independent life with dignity.
Gehlot said the Indian government has enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 which envisions an inclusive society primarily deriving its spirit from the UNCRPD and Sustainable Development Goals -- 'leaving no-one behind'.
"Youths with disabilities need exposure to ICT usage at the early learning stage so as to enable them to live a dignified life. We strive to create better infrastructure including the provisioning of ICT tools, applications, etc., for empowerment of persons with disabilities in the country at the school-level at different stages of education.
"We strongly believe that given the opportunity and reasonable accommodation, persons with disabilities can excel in any field. Information technology acts as a bridge which enhances the life skills of persons with disabilities besides improving their communication skills and employment opportunity," he said.
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He said his ministry is also implementing an ambitious National Action Plan for Skill Development for Persons with Disabilities to enhance their employability and economic empowerment. The skill training also envisages training on ICT-based web application programme.
The "Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities, 2018" was organised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in association with Rehabilitation International (RI) Korea and their associated partner LG Electronics.
President of RI, Korea, thanked the Government of India for hosting the event successfully.
This year 96 youths with disabilities (visual disability, hearing disability, locomotor disability and intellectual disability/developmental disorder) from 18 countries namely India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates participated in the event.
The individual competition on e-tool and e-life mapping was held on November 9, 2018 and the group competition event was completed on Sunday.
Alongside the IT challenge competitions, another parallel programme namely IT Forum was also organised to showcase the best practices followed by various participating countries regarding use of ICT for enhancing empowerment of persons with disabilities.
As many as 55 awards were up for grab in the event, including award for best volunteer. The objective of the event was to leverage IT skills among youth with disabilities and also to spread awareness about the application of ICT in enhancing the quality of life of persons with disabilities especially in Asia-Pacific region.
It is a capacity building project that helps youth with disabilities to overcome their limitations and challenge themselves for a better future by providing them with access to ICT and related experiences, improving their ability to leverage information and social participation while setting ICT agendas for participant countries related to disabilities and boosting international cooperation and exchange.
It is being held with a total of four events including e-Tool Challenge to evaluate the skills of using the MS Office programme and e-Life Map Challenge to evaluate the online information search ability in specific situations.
India had nominated twelve youths with disabilities to participate in the event. These youths with disabilities had been selected on the basis of the National IT Challenge conducted by the Ministry through NIT, Kurukshetra in June, 2018.
India has been participating in the event since 2013 and has been winning awards ever since. Last year the event was held in Vietnam.
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