Set on a mission to create awareness on disabilities and assert their rights, a team of differently abled people under the aegis of Nagaland State Disability Forum (NSDF) has embarked on a state wide tour to various districts under the motto listen to our voices’.
The entourage comprising of 6 NSDF members took off after brief flagging off ceremony from their office near Clock Tower, Dimapur.
The team is scheduled to visit five districts including Mon, Longleng, Mokokchung, Wokha which would finally culminate at Kohima on March 22 where after a meeting with State Disabled Commissioner Atha Vizol.
During the tour, the team would be submitting ‘letter of appeal’ to the Deputy Commissioner of the respective touring districts and the same would be submitted to the State Disability Commissioner as well.
During the brief flagging off ceremony, NSDF executive, Maong said, alot of times the disabled people look up to other to but it was time now that they stand up and speak for themselves since there were numerous issues which needed to be addressed and for that he urged the support of the church and media to create awareness since most of the time people were unaware of the benefits and privileges that were set aside for the disabled people.
NSDF president, Kezhaleto Zecho, an amputee himself and who is also a member in the national disability forum thank the people for their support.
He said that although people with disabilities could avail various schemes from the government, they had no clue and therefore, he said, the whole aim of the tour was to create awareness on these issues.
The flagging off ceremony was done invocation by with Dimapur Ao Baptist Arogo (DABA) youth director, Toshi Jamir.
It may be mentioned here that NSDF is a body which aims at mobilizing the disabled people of the state to be members of the forum by creating awareness and providing a platform for collective effort towards assuring rights and duties of People with Disabilities in the within and beyond the state.
According to the 2011 census records, Nagaland has a staggering 29,631 people with disabilities but experts working with the disabled people said there could be more since Nagas hesitate to come forward with cases of disabled people in their family fearing social stigma which in turns creates a bigger problem to the person with disability since they were deprived of timely help and assistance.