The parents of differently abled children in the State have said that they are disappointed by the State Budget presented by Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal on Friday. The Kerala chapter of Parivar, an organisation of parents of intellectually challenged children recognised under the National Trust Act, has said that the budget completely neglected their children and their needs.
The organisation has come up with a few suggestions that could be accommodated in the budget to realise the dream of a differently abled friendly State as proposed by the Left Democratic Front in its election manifesto.
According to the organisation, the parents of intellectually challenged children devote their whole life to take care of the children and hence cannot find any other job. They are given an honorarium under the ‘Aswasa Kiranam’ scheme, but the payment has been pending since September 2020, and new applications are not being entertained. The Parivar has suggested that the honorarium be raised on par with the wages of workers under employment guarantee schemes and the arrears be paid post-haste.
Parivar State president M.P. Karunakaran reminded the government about the promised hike in pension for the differently abled, while demanding that the hike should be in accordance with the standard of living in the State.
The Parivar has demanded the setting up of rehabilitation centres in every district for differently abled children who are not under the care of their parents. The centres should provide them medical treatment, education, skill development, employment and protection round-the-clock. There should be block resource centres in every panchayat for intellectually challenged persons above 18 years of age, the organisation demanded.
At present, the government offers tax concessions when differently abled people purchase vehicles. The Parivar demanded that the same benefits be extended to the intellectually challenged as well and to exclude the differently abled completely from road tax. The organisation also demanded that programmes for the welfare of the differently abled should be included in the Gender Budget.
There was a need for constant monitoring of the welfare programmes for the differently abled and hence the demand for a separate department and ministry for them has been raised.
Mr. Karunakaran, in a press release, pointed out the Supreme Court’s observation that the families of differently abled people deserved special status similar to that of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and and said they were hence eligible for similar benefits.
