The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : District centre to look after needs of the tsunami disabled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

District centre to look after needs of the tsunami disabled

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, JAN. 24. The District Disability Rehabilitation Centre at Villapuram here was entrusted with the work of counselling and rehabilitating of persons who suffered disabilities owing to the tsunami strike.

The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment directed the centre on January 11 to take up the work in Nagapattinam and Karaikal areas. Sources at the Collectorate here told The Hindu that the centre has started mitigating the hardships of the tsunami disabled.

The centre requested the Union Ministry to initiate measures immediately and sanction new posts of special educator for the hearing impaired, Audiologist or Ear Mould Technician-cum-Hearing Aid Repairer, special educators for the visually impaired and a ministerial staff to cope with the needs of the new districts attached to it.

The management committee of the centre, which met on December 15 under the chairmanship of the Collector, sent a proposal to the Ministry to sanction the posts as it was directed to take the districts of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Namakkal, Salem and Erode into its fold recently and carry out disability rehabilitation services. The centre now caters to the requirements of Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Dindigul, Theni, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts.

Rehab centre

The centre was established under the guidance of the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabad, under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment with the support of the State Commissioner for Disabilities.

It conducts orientation programmes for grass-root level workers to identify persons with disabilities so that they could bring the persons for screening / assessment. It conducts screening or assessing activities through camps regularly.

Follow-up camps were conducted to dole out assistive devices including tricycles, wheelchairs, crutches and calipers to persons with loco motor disabilities, hearing aids for persons with hearing impairments, and white canes, low vision aids, etc., for persons with visual impairments.

The materials are given free of cost under the Assistive Devices in Persons with Disabilities (ADIP) scheme of the Union Ministry to those with monthly income below Rs.5,000. The materials were given at 50 per cent of their cost to those with a monthly income ranging from Rs.5,001 to Rs.8,000.

The centre is equipped with a full-fledged workshop for preparing and repairing assistive devices, an audiometry room for hearing assessment and repairing hearing aids, teaching-learning materials, physiotherapy equipment for providing therapeutic services, information brochures on various schemes and benefits given by the Government and multimedia facilities. Family and vocational counselling, guidance and occupational therapy are some of the thrust areas of the centre.

Training programme

The centre is training 15 persons on `Community-based caregivers programme' to equip them to work for various non-governmental organisations. The Collector, D. Raajendiran, inaugurated the training programme recently.

The trainees will be paid a stipend of Rs.500 a month during the six-month training period. Certificates will be given after completing the training.

The Collector gave away aids and appliances worth Rs.28,259 to beneficiaries.

S. Alagumannan, coordinator, C. Ramasubramaniam, nodal officer, and Meenakshi Sundaram, Tahsildar, participated.

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