Close to a thousand people with varying degrees of disability congregated in the national capital today with an aim of creating greater societal sensitisation towards their difficulties.
Disability aids, scholarships and even jobs were also made available at the Disability Summit, organised by an NGO - Centre for Advancement and Rehabilitation for Disabled (CRADLE), on United Nation's International Day of Person's with Disabilities which has the theme 'Sustainable Development: The Promise of Technology' this year.
In a clear indication towards the dearth of employment opportunities for them, scores of disabled youth, both men and women, lined up at the counters that were set up to accept job applications.
"With the assistance of business houses and other NGOs we managed to announce around 225 scholarships and 125 jobs at the meet today. The eligible applicants will be awarded jobs and scholarships within a few days," Ashutosh Kumar, Project Coordinator of CRADLE said.
People also applied for various mobility and disability aids like tricycles, hearing aids and daisy players at the meet.
"The government has assured us that they will be sanctioning at least 250 tricycles within 15 days of receiving our applications which we will do once we sift through all the applications received today," Kumar said.
But the paucity of wheelchairs and other mobility aids stuck out like an eyesore at the event as the disabled as well as people accompanying them found it extremely difficult to move around the event venue.
India has around 180 million persons with disability among which at least 90 million are unemployed.
Founded in May 2006 as a public charitable trust, Delhi-based CRADLE works towards bringing societal awareness among persons with disability and empowering them.
