1 million disabled population impacted, 500+ NGOs partnered, Trained & Placed – 51,000+ PwD’s across 16 states by Sarthak Educational Trust
by Suman Gupta
New Delhi, 23rd Dec 2022:The 9th National Conference on Disability hosted by Sarthak Educational Trust and National Abilympic Association of India was flagged off today at AICTE, New Delhi. The theme for this year is “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 is an important step in highlighting how global and local partnerships can impact empowerment and mainstreaming of persons with disabilities (PwD’s) 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.
This event brought national and global experts together to bring knowledge and practical wisdom towards the disability inclusivity movement. Sarthak Educational Trust has been working since 2008 and in the last 14 years has successfully reached out to 1 million of disabled populace in India and Trained & Placed – 51,000+ persons with disabilities PwD’s across 16 states to let them excel in their fields and inspire many.
Shri Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner of India shared, “The major issue today for persons with disabilities is providing employment and skilling. PwD’s are more able than all of us, they are more sensitive towards society. Society has been looking at them with sympathy but what they need is equality, and am happy that Sarthak has been working towards their empowerment. Currently there are 2.68cr PwD’s 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 have to be Inclusive and accessible and the Election commission is working towards this cause as such partnership will give a voice to their disability rights. The dream of Sarthak to build GRC and the University, will be supported as EC is eager to support the cause of Disability Inclusion”
Dr. Jitender Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Sarthak Educational Trust shared, “Sarthak is working extensively to reach PwD’s even in the remotest area. In this direction, we have partnered with 500+ NGOs in various parts of India under India Disability Empowerment Alliance (IDEA). We have also created digital solutions that are extremely useful & benefitting 36,000+ PwD’s PAN India. Next year, we will also see the launch of our dream project 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 and we appeal the corporates and the Government to support the cause”. An tie-up with SGT University, Gurugram was also announced for implementing One year PG Diploma in Disability Studies & Action (PGDDSA) and One year PG Diploma in Early Intervention (PGDEI) to create more trained human resources who can effectively and sensitively engage better with PwD’s as Trainers and Therapists.
The Corporate Panel brought together several HR and Diversity Inclusion Experts & Leaders to discuss measures needed to be ensured to involve inclusion of PwD’s, especially Digital Inclusion. . “We brought more of a mindset change in operations by looking at PwD’s as resources. Initially it looked as a challenge, later we realized it was an opportunity to make Amazon an Inclusive workplace. It blended well with our values and our assets like warehouses, facilities etc. We made several structural changes to our office buildings, mapping what job positions we can offer across 21 disabilities and we zeroed down on 7 disabilities, that is how our journey to inclusivity began”, added Mr. Anuj Kaura, Director- Supply Chain and e-Commerce Fulfilment Specialist; Strategic Planner, Capability Builder and Leadership Coach, Amazon India. “The target for this year is hiring around 5000 PwD’s across all our platforms. From hiring 125 PwD’s in a month we at Reliance have come a long way in becoming an inclusive workplace”, shared Mr. Amit Rawat, Zonal HR head, Reliance Retail
A massive Online Job fair for Divyanjan was also organized with top recruiters from the country like Flipkart, DHL, D’Mart, Indigo, Tata Croma, VMart, Sarathee and many more from across the country. Divyangjan can participate in this job fair for PwDs by visitinghttp://www.rozgarsarathi.org.Around 17 companies hosted jobs and almost 300 PwD participants attended the fair.
Sarthak Educational Trust has presence at 25 centers across the country at (New Delhi (4), Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Guwahati, Bangalore, Bhopal, Jaipur, Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Thane, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum) and are actively engaged in creating productive citizens of India through life cycle approach and Early Intervention, Inclusive Education, Skill Development, Employment Generation, and Advocacy programs. More information available on (http://www.sarthakindia.org).,https://sarthakindia.org/NCD
National Abilympic Association of India has been working to ensure excellence in vocational skills by organizing regional and national level Abilympics in India and representing India in International Abilympics since 2001 (http://www.abilympicsindia.org)
