EMPOWERMENT OF YOUTH WITH DISABILITIES - AN INCLUSION

Dear All

RGNIYD, Sriperumbuddur, Tamil Nadu is going to organize National Colloquium on YOUTH EMPOWERMENT on 10th & 11th Feb 2011. Among the youth, the youth with disabilities are the focused group for making them part of the community as a right.

UNCRPD has brought the paradigm shift in the concept of disability from charity to developmental to human rights model. In this connection, addressing these youth is the need and every one should support them to keep with us at all levels with dignity and equality.

I am happy to inform you all that my paper on "RCPC A CSR – NGO MODEL FOR THE EMPOWERMENT OF YOUTH WITH DISABILITIES" has been accepted and the same is going to be presented by me.

The abstract of the paper is furnished below as:

ABSTRACT

The youth with disabilities (YWDs) gains importance as they needs to be productive for leading independent living with better sustainability and quality of life (QOL) to the maximum extent possible in the given environment. At this stage, YWDs needs to under go training and rehabilitation in general and particular to enhance their skills and further to employability. In view of the recent Act in the field of Disability entitled “United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)” which is signed by India has become obligatory to implement for the empowerment of PWDs with right based strategies. This focuses more on the environment in which they are living rather than their disability. In view of this, empowerment of the youth with disability became priority and thus considered for present study.

The Resource Centre cum Placement Cell (RCPC) is the model developed for providing training, rehabilitation and employment to the youth with disabilities. RCPC consists of various components which include: Registration, Screening & Assessment, Training & Rehabilitation, Networking, Employment and Forum. It works from the stage of entry to employment and later for the inclusion at all levels. The holistic approach is the unique feature of RCPC which works for the inclusion on the concept of equality and dignity as a right and thus tunes to UNCRPD.

In the process of empowerment of persons with disabilities, Government, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Professionals, Funding Agencies, Donors, Parents and other Stakeholders are working in coordination. Based on the challenges, skills, dynamic needs and living circumstances of the youth with disabilities and their family / community members, there exists gap in mobilizing the matching resources. At this stage, the Industries and Corporate support under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fills the gap. The developed CSR – NGO model works between the NGOs and Industries / Corporate for supporting RCPC which provides the training to employment for the youth with disabilities. The RCPC and CSR-NGO Model were implemented between the engineering Industry (as a CSR) and Welfare Society for Disabled (as an NGO) both situated in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and provided employment for the youth with disabilities with out restriction of age, gender, category and severity of disability, socio-economical status and region. It only concentrated on the development of skills and employment matching to their skills and needs.

This RCPC and CSR-NGO Model have provided employment for 202 youth with disabilities. In respect of gender, male dominates (175 with 87%) over the female (27 with 13%) which is expected as the female with disability still under goes stigma and consequences of disability irrespective of their individuals’ contribution. While coming to category of disability, hearing impaired (HI) dominates (92 with 47%) over the Speech (83 with 41%) and Orthopedically Handicapped (27with 13%). In respect of age, 25 to 30 years dominates (141 with 70%) over < 25 years (42 with 21%) and > 35 years (19 with 9%).

This process helped the Industry and NGO to get recognition with National Awards and to be with the community for reaching their target groups for business and development respectively. The conclusions include: the youth with disabilities are the victims of poverty, disability and development; the real challenges for the YWDs is their poor access for the services and benefits; RCPC and CSR - NGO Model are flexible, cost effective and benefits both individually and to provided employment for the YWDs and finally RCPC and CSR – NGO Model works for the inclusion of PWDs with sustainable development and quality of life. For an effective process for empowering the youth with disabilities for inclusion, make mandatory for the Industries / Corporate to work with CSR-NGO Model.
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Looking forward for reflections and better networking...

with thanks