Sarthak’s 9th National Conference on Disability draws a roadmap to make Disability Inclusion a reality

New Delhi [India], December 29 (ANI/SRV): Sarthak Educational Trust and National Abilympic Association of India hosted the 9th National Conference on Disability at AICTE Campus, New Delhi, on 23rd & 24th Dec 2022.

The 2-day event brought together various disability evangelists to bring knowledge and practical wisdom towards the disability inclusivity movement in the country. Themed around “Glocal Partnerships for Disability Inclusive Development’, Shri Rajeev Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner of India, was the Chief Guest on the inaugural day of the 2-day conference. The event was an essential step in highlighting how global and local partnerships can impact the empowerment and mainstreaming of persons with disabilities (PwDs) in the country. Ranging from Early Intervention, Inclusive Education, Skill Building, Sustainable Employment and Advocacy, Sarthak Educational Trust has played a critical and crucial role in empowering people with disabilities across India.

A massive Online Job fair for Divyanjan was organized with top recruiters from the country like Flipkart, DHL, D’Mart, Indigo, Tata Croma, VMart, Sarathee and many more from across the country. Around 17 companies hosted jobs, and almost 300 PwD participants attended the fair. Sarthak Educational Trust has been working since 2008 and, in the last 14 years, has successfully reached out to 1 million of the disabled populace in India and Trained & Placed – 51,000+ persons with disabilities PwD across 16 states to let them excel in their fields and inspire many.

While speaking at the inaugural panel, Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner of India, shared, “Currently, there are 2.68cr PwDs in the country, but I am sure this number is bigger than this, and it’s our responsibility to stand by them and bring them to the mainstream economy. Elections must be Inclusive and accessible, and the Election commission is working towards this cause as such a partnership will give a voice to their disability rights”.

Highlighting the key factors that need to be taken up for the cause in the next fiscal, Dr Jitender Aggarwal, Founder & CEO of Sarthak Educational Trust, shared, “There is a need to publicize more about RPwD Act 2016 across India, as despite its implementation public awareness is still lacking. Sarthak is working extensively to reach PwD, even in the remotest area. In this direction, we have partnered with 500+ NGOs in various parts of India under the India Disability Empowerment Alliance (IDEA). There is also a need to explore possibilities of registering on the Social Stock Exchange being set up by SEBI soon. Sarthak is now preparing to send 14 nationally selected PwD candidates to participate in 13 Skills categories for International Abilympics skill competitions in March 2023 to Metz, France. Sarthak also hails BSE’s Social Stock Exchange, which will also help divyanjan.”

Sarthak has successfully created digital solutions like CapSarathi and RozgarSarathi that are extremely useful & benefitting 36,000+ PwDs across India. A lot of support was also poured in for The Global Resource Centre (GRC) at Gurgaon, which is a First-of-its-kind accessible hub addressing all disability needs from Childhood to Livelihood for Persons with Disabilities.

“Sarthak is also conceptualizing a Global University for Persons with Disabilities, which will provide a talent pool of trained and resume-ready manpower to serve the disability sector, which will be highly socially inclined and sensitized towards PwDs”, added Dr Aggarwal.

While speaking on advocating the change to create a disability-inclusive India, Shri. Rajeev Sharma, IFoS, Joint Secretary, DEPwD, shared, “The GOI is working tirelessly towards creating a barrier-free environment. It’s a continuous process, and the seed should be sown at the inception level. DEPwD is also exploring Skill Impact Bonds to attract foreign companies to invest in India to create more and better resources for the Disability Sector in India.

The Early Intervention panel threw light on the fact that disabilities like Sickle Cell Anaemia are still lacking media attention and need to be highlighted more, including other new disabilities included in the RPwD Act 2016.

The Corporate Panel brought together several HR and Diversity Inclusion Experts & Leaders to discuss measures to ensure the inclusion of PwDs, especially Digital Inclusion. “We brought more of a mindset change in operations by looking at PwDs as resources to make Amazon an inclusive workplace”, added Anuj Kaura, Director, Capability Builder and Leadership Coach Amazon India. “The target for this year is to hire around 5000 PwDs across all our platforms”, shared Amit Rawat, Zonal HR head, Reliance Retail.

Sarthak Educational Trust has a presence at 25 centres across the country (New Delhi (4), Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Guwahati, Bangalore, Bhopal, Jaipur, Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Thane, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum).

For more information, please visit: https://sarthakindia.org/
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