My best wishes in all your endeavors mam. what you've raised is an issue that deserves nation wide debates and discussions. omission of the mentally challenged women from the scheme proves the presence of prejudice among the political and bureaucratic class. lets hope to get a positive result from the CM of West Bengal. kindly update us whenever you receive any revert with regard to this issue. cheers. On 4/10/15, Sruti disAbility Rights Centre <[email protected]> wrote: > Sharing with all of you an open letter to Chief Minister Mamata > Bandapadhyay written by me as girls with disabilities are discriminated in > a scheme of West Bengal Government. > > Regards > > Shampa Sengupta > > > An open letter to Chief Minister Mamata Bandapadhyay > > > Respected Madam, > > I am a social activist working on the issue of disability & gender rights. > I would like to bring into your notice a fact that has been bothering me > for some time. > > Kanyashree Prakalpa is a flagship scheme of your Government. This scheme > which has won laurels from the UN as well, was launched with the purported > aim of decreasing the number of early marriage of girls. You yourself have > often been talking of this scheme at various places. To be very honest, I > felt happy when I first went through the details of Kanyashree scheme > because girls with disabilities are also included, while they get left out > in many other schemes. The fact that this scheme exempts financial > criterion of disabled girls as opposed to general girls was welcome > news. However, > I feel slightly disturbed because the scheme mentioned this exemption for > "physically handicapped" girls. I had objections with the term "handicap" > as also was bothered about why girls with mental disabilities will not be > able to get this benefit. > > I raised these two questions when Smt Mita Bandapadhyay, Commissioner, > Disabilities, called a meeting to discuss exclusively on "Kanyashree" > scheme - as our organisation Sruti Disability Rights Centre has work > experience of years on working on gender and disability issues we received > an invite. I personally attended this meeting on 4th September 2013. I felt > relieved as Madam Commissioner told us that they are looking into this > issue and girls with all kinds of disabilities will be able to access this > benefit. We (all the NGO representatives present) were asked to bring back > some forms, get those filled up by parents of disabled girls and submit > before October 2013. We did the same. We faced some major difficulties > while these forms were filled up. As the money was supposed to come in the > Bank account of the minor girls, we had to ensure that new accounts were > opened within such short period of time as none of the girls had accounts. > As Banks create problems during opening accounts of disabled adults too - > the process was a tedious. Furnishing other documents "Not married" created > problems in some cases as the concerned authorities were not cooperative. > However we managed to submit 6 filled in forms with all papers to > Disability commissioner's office before the stipulated date. Several other > disability groups submitted forms before October 2013 in similar fashion. > > Madam, unfortunately, though nearly a year and half have passed not a > single girl has received any money. I have enquired several times about the > reasons of the same at Commissioner of Disabilities office. I received two > different answers - firstly I was told that there had been mistakes in > filling up the forms which my organisation submitted, and secondly, this > work is not related to their department and they cannot answer for the > same. It is difficult to accept that all the disability organisations that > submitted these forms made mistakes in filling up the same. > > I would not have written this letter to you Madam. But Kanyashree scheme is > not just praised by bodies like UNICEF but at national level also, so in > case there is some mistakes in implementing the same scheme, I believe it > is responsibility of your government to rectify the same. Disabled people > are treated as "burden" by society even in these days. Women and girls with > disabilities remain even more marginalised - so a question is arising, is > their disability the reason for this exclusion in this case as well? > > I refrained from asking you this question earlier. But a few days back a > mother, after getting down from the bus with much difficulty with her > daughter with multiple disabilities, asked me in the bus-stop itself, > "Didi, media says so many girls received money, but none from our group. > This money is only for normal (the term "bhalo" used by her) girls, na?". I > have got provoked and hence this letter. > > So I am writing this letter to you, on behalf of a large number of disabled > girls of West Bengal, who are waiting with anticipation. > > Hope you will consider our case Madam. > > With regards > > Shampa Sengupta > > 5 A R.K. Ghosal Road > > Kolkata 700 042 > > 30th March 2015 > > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of > mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. >
-- "It doesn't matter what we have, but it really matters what we do with what we have." With Sincere Regards Balanagendran. D IAS Aspirant Skype: balanagendran Twitter: http://twitter.com/balanagendran89 Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
