MEGHALAYA PWDs: "WANT ACTION, NOT SONGS AND DANCES"

Meghalaya Government must “take action” to alleviate problems of people with Disabilities (PWD) instead of organizing just “dancing and singing programmes” every year on World Disability Day.

“We don’t want just singing and dancing programmes to mark World Disability Day, but want action for an inclusive and barrier-free association with everyone,” Celene Lawai, a young girl with locomotive disability, demanded. The Social welfare department organizes such programmes, which Celene says is okay, but such programmes “doesn’t create change” in PWDs’ lives.

“We instead want to have conferences with the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and other officers so that we can discuss some of our problems. We want an inclusive and barrier-free association with the Government and the society,” the young girl said.

Celene, together with Melip D Sangma, president of Association of Challenged People of Meghalaya and others had a candid interaction with the media here today on occasion of World Disability Day sharing some of the problems faced by people with disability in Meghalaya.

Steps, Celene continued, aren’t exactly the stepping stones to success, but are in fact “barriers” and makes life more difficult for some of the PWDs with movement problems.

 “I don’t like someone helping me up the stairs. I would rather like to move my wheelchair around, but in most offices and even the secretariat do not have arrangement for ramps and this makes it difficult to call upon officers in these buildings,” she said.

Sangma on the other hand said that the government must ensure that the Government buildings in the newly created districts must be made assessable for all. “Please consider the accessibility factor for PWDs when you make these new buildings,” Sangma urged the Government.

Reiterating that “barriers must be removed to remove pain,” Celene said: “nothing should be decided about us without us.” She lamented that most of the Government decision are being made without taking into confidence the PWDs of the state. There are over 32000 PWDS in Meghalaya, according to the census data.

Another important factor relating to the PWDs is education. Celene said that most of the schools don’t have trained teachers to teach both the non-disable and disable students. “The schools must be inclusive under the PWD Act and teachers must be trained accordingly, especially for the hearing and visually impaired,” she pointed out.