Issue Date: Friday , June 26 , 2009
Nudge to Pranab on budget for disabled
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, June 25: The social justice and empowerment ministry has
written to the finance minister asking him to "keep the disabled in mind''
while preparing the budget.
It has sent a list of demands for the "budget for the disabled" to Pranab
Mukherjee. These include more job programmes for the physically challenged,
greater funding to ensure existing schools have better facilities for them and
increased funds for more special schools. Another key demand is that all major
government schemes should have special allocations for the disabled.
The requests come after the National Child Rights Commission last week
called for a "child budget".
The social justice ministry has also demanded a "cess" to fund the
education of children with disabilities, like the "education cess" now in
force. It wants all ministries to draw up a plan for the disabled and set aside
at least 3 per cent of their allocations for it.
Funds have also been sought for a survey to collect data on the
physically challenged.
Also on the ministry wish list is the request to lower income tax rates
for employees with disabilities - they pay the tax at rates applicable to
others now - and total tax exemption for aids and devices that are used by such
persons.
The ministry has pointed out that while there are an estimated 90 million
persons with disabilities, only 1.5 per cent of the beneficiaries of poverty
alleviation and welfare schemes are from this section of the population.
Better incentives have been sought for private firms that employ people
with disabilities. The ministry has said there is a need for a fresh look at
the incentive scheme proposed in the last budget for employers who hire
disabled people. The aim was to provide 100,000 jobs but the incentives, such
as tax breaks for firms, were not found to be attractive.
WISH LIST
Key demands to help the physically-challenged
. Set up more schools only for physically challenged, especially in rural
areas
. Better facilities for them in normal schools
. More funds for training teachers of schools meant for the disabled
. Special job schemes
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