Karnataka - Hassan

Physically challenged children keep them spellbound

HASSAN: Physically impaired students kept the audience as well the dignitaries on the dais spellbound when they performed dances and other culture programmes at an International Day for People with Disabilities function at the Ambedkar Bhavan in Hassan on Wednesday. The programme was organised by the Zilla Angavikalara Hagoo Hiriya Nagarikara Kalyana Ilakhe, the Women and Child Development Department and the Zilla Angavikalara Sangha.

Deputy Commissioner Naveen Raj Singh inaugurated the programme.

Zilla panchayat Chief Executive Officer Shankaranarayana, in his presidential remarks, advised people to strive to bring physically challenged children to the mainstream. He said that the Government was providing them education under the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyan. If a child was unable to go to school, then a teacher would be sent to the child’s home. He advised parents not to lose heart with their child’s handicap but instil confidence in them so that they could be part of the mainstream.

Child Development Officer Vasanthi Uppara said there were 29,487 physically challenged children in the district and the Government is providing help to them.

Physically challenged children performed cultural programmes. Students from a deaf and dumb school gave a dance performance while those children from a blind school sang devotional and folk songs. A drama was also staged.

Deputy Director, Women and Child Development Department, M. Radhakrishna, in his welcome address, said that in every gram panchayat one physically impaired person has been appointed on a honorarium of Rs. 1,000 a month and one such person has been inducted at the taluk level to educate physically challenged children on the government schemes available to them for their betterment.

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