Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 07 2010:
The outdated scholarships and monthly allowances given to the disabled persons will be increased, stated a source of the Department of Social Welfare, government
of Manipur.
The present amount of scholarship given to the disabled persons from primary level to class V is ' 40 per month and ' 120 for class VI to graduate students.
It was approved in 1982 .
Diet allowance is ' 500 and unemployment allowance for matric to under graduates is ' 150 and ' 200 for post graduates.
The state government is taking up necessary actions to increase the allowance amounts for the welfare of the disabled persons.
The exact amount to be increase for the allowance is still undecided.
However, the diet allowance and scholarship amounts are likely to be increase to ' 750 and ' 100 from ' 500 and ' 40 respectively.
As per official records, there are 12,373 disabled persons in the state including 5518 locomotive disables, 467 cerebral pulse disables, 2332 hearing impaired, 1522 visual impaired, 1848 mentally retarded, 652 mentally ill, 338 multiple disables.
However, 2001 census report shows a total of 18,760 disabled persons in the state.
The main cause of the huge difference between the official record and census report is lack of assessment by the authority due to the non-participation of parents and guardians.
A medical board with many specialist asses the disabled persons and issue them certificates.
Government should set up a district medical board for all district for easy assessment of the disabled persons as disabled persons from remote areas face many difficulties in coming to JN hospital for assessment.
But lack of specialists in these fields has been a hindrance in creating district medical boards.
However, three district medical boards have been created in Thoubal, Imphal East and CCpur.