Good work madam. Many many thanks for such an intresting info also.
Our best wishes are always with you. Regards, Neelima 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.. > -- God examine those whom loves he the most. 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..
