HYDERABAD: Waiting on a proposal that needs to be sent to the Union Government by State Department for Disabled and Senior Citizens, visually-challenged people of Telangana have a golden opportunity to access gadgets which can make their life easier
A lesser known scheme by the Union Government called 'Assistance to Disabled Persons' (ADIP) recently added two advanced gadgets to its list. One of them is a 'Smart Cane', a walking stick equipped with sensor and the second is a 'Plextalk Vachak', a digital text reader which can read Hindi and English languages for its users. Both the devices cost `3,000 and `12,000. The scheme offers both free to the visually-disabled. http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/Smart-Cane-and-Digital-Text-Reader-Likely-for-the-Blind/2014/08/19/article2386800.ece The Union Government supplies these devices only to the departments concerned of the state or any charitable trusts which come forward to distribute them. It also requires a detailed proposal with the number of beneficiaries and their details to be submitted by the organisations. So far concerned departments from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana haven't submitted their proposals to the Union Ministry, said B Venkateshwarlu, Counselling and Rehabilitation officer at Department for Disabled and Senior Citizen, Telangana. The department follows the census data by the Centre to recognise the beneficiaries and doesn't conduct any surveys of its own. Based on the data of 2011 census the department sent a proposal to the Union government for funds worth `3.31 crore in December 2013 to buy aids. But only `75 lakh were released for the selected 9,742 beneficiaries. Department had to split the funds between AP and Telangana after the bifurcation where the states received `44 lakh and 31 lakh respectively. Existing schemes were kept on hold as they have to sketch a plan for sharing the existing beneficiaries between the states. Currently the Department for Disabled and Senior Citizens, Telangana is working only on one scheme under which the department supplies tools like tricycles, walking sticks, wheel chairs and hearing machines. But the ordered items might be delivered in two more months, said the corporation officials of the Department. Printing Braille textbooks which is one of the major service from the department has also stopped few months back, said the officials. Department of Disability Affairs under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment started this scheme in 1981. It offers devices, tools and medical assistance to the disabled people for subsidised prices. Those whose family income is up to `15,000 can get them for free of cost while those with the family income between `15,000 to 20,000 will get 50 percent of subsidy. Earlier the ADIP scheme covered only mechanical wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, canes and plastic Braille slates for the visually disabled and simple hearing aids. The 'Smart Cane' was developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the 'Plextalk Vachak' was developed by a Bangalore based Indo-Japanese company. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
