City first in Maha to give disability certificate to autistic kids

  • | Wednesday | 2nd August, 2017

Other disability certificates include certificates for blindness, partial blindness, deaf, partially deaf, orthopaedically handicapped, mentally retarded and leprosy. "Parents of autistic children can get the certificate by paying the meagre amount within a week, without much hassle. Nagpur has also become the second city after Mumbai to provide Learning Disability (LD) certificates. The distribution of certificate will empower the special citizens of the city and bring them into the mainstream of society. "ZP social welfare officer Sukeshini Telgote said the step is a part of the guidelines issued by department of empowerment of person with disability, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in 2016.

Nagpur: In a first of its kind joint initiative by the social welfare department, Zila Parishad (ZP) and education department, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) along with District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRC), Nagpur, autistic children from city will now get disability certificate from Government Medical College (GMC) and Mayo Hospital from second week of August after proper assessment.Earlier, they were given only a report which could have been fetched from Sion Hospital, Mumbai, after paying an OPD charge of Rs3,500, but now they can get a proper certificate by paying just Rs10 in Nagpur itself.With this, the special children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can avail all the benefits provided by private organizations and the state as well as the central government. Nagpur has also become the second city after Mumbai to provide Learning Disability (LD) certificates. Other disability certificates include certificates for blindness, partial blindness, deaf, partially deaf, orthopaedically handicapped, mentally retarded and leprosy."Parents of autistic children can get the certificate by paying the meagre amount within a week, without much hassle. This initiative adds Nagpur to the elite cities across the country, where a disabled person can procure a certificate irrespective of disability, defined under People with Disability (PwD) Act 1995 and National Trust Act 1999," Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan project coordinator Abhijeet Raut said.Some of the schemes autistic children can avail of are Samarth, Niramaya, GyanPrabha, UddyamPrabha, Arunim Wage Employment in private sector, self-employment waiver, Income Tax-Related Exemptions, Employees Provident Fund, hotel discounts, travel concessions education policies from Life Insurance Corporation of India and many more.Speaking to TOI, assistant profession of psychiatrist department in Government Medical College Dr Manish Thakre said, "The feat has been made possible due to the hard work of various officials of NMC, ZP and collector Sachin Kurve. The distribution of certificate will empower the special citizens of the city and bring them into the mainstream of society."ZP social welfare officer Sukeshini Telgote said the step is a part of the guidelines issued by department of empowerment of person with disability, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in 2016. As per the guidelines, autism has been recognized as one of the disabilities under Section 2 of National Trust Act, 1999, she said."The procedure of certificate distribution is being conducted at the district level in coordination with Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, where urban children will get the certificates at GMC and rural kids at Mayo Hospital.Kurve told TOI, "We have been working for this project for the last one year and aim to provide certificate to all the disabled children within 3 months starting August."

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