CBM India launches its flagship campaign in Kolkata
“Include Vidya” campaign will encourage inclusion of children with
disabilities in education in India
A “Walkathon” with more than 500 children with
disabilities was organized to commemorate this launch.
CBM India announced the launch of its “Include
Vidya” campaign in Kolkata, to include children with disabilities in education
in India. Prerana Educational Centre, Siliguri, has
partnered with CBM India to lead this campaign in Kolkata. A “Walkathon” with 500
children with disabilities along with mainstream and special schools, other
NGOs and the Indian Army was flagged off, today, at 09:00 am, from Fountain of
Joy and ended at Rabindra Sadan. An enthralling event followed at Rabindra Sadan
which witnessed speeches made by West Bengal State Government officials on the
topic of “inclusive education” for children with disabilities along with games
and performances by the participating children. The program ended with a recommendation
for ensuring inclusive education in West Bengal.
From the West Bengal State Government, Shri.
Arnab Roy, Principal Secretary, School
Education, Smt. Sudipta Chatterjee, State Project Director, SSA, Smt. Mita
Banerjee, State Commissioner Disabilities, West Bengal, Smt. Roshni Sen,
Secretary, Social Welfare Women & Child Development, Shri. Riten Roy,
Director, Information & Culture Affairs and Shri. Sukanta Goswami, State
IED Coordinator, West Bengal, all extended their support to CBM India’s
“Include Vidya” campaign by participating in the event today. Other
participants included group member organizations of this campaign such as the
campaign lead, Prerana Educational Centre along withAssociation for Women with
Disablities (AWWD), ANWESHA, Banglanatak dot com, IICP, Mobility India,
MENTAID, NBCD, PAARIVAR-Bengal,SANCHAR, Silence andSVH.
CBM India launched the “Include Vidya” campaign, from
9th September, 2014, onwards, conducting district level events, in Balurghat-Dakhin
Dinajpur District and Siliguri-Darjeeling District of West Bengal. All the
activities were planned around the central theme of “inclusive education”. District
Magistrate/ Sub-Divisional Officer, Additional Executive Officer, Inclusive Education
for the Disabled (IED) Coordinators, School Inspectors, Special Educators,
Teachers, children with disabilities, mainstream school students and volunteers
actively participated in making the event successful.
Speaking about the “Include Vidya” campaign, Dr.
Sara Varughese, National Director, CBM India, said, “CBM envisions an inclusive
world in which all persons with disabilities enjoy their human rights and
achieve their full potential. We want every child with disability to be in
school, learning and playing with their friends. We urge governments,
organizations and citizens to work with us to make inclusive education a
reality”.
Ms.Rita Sen Gupta, Director, PreranaEducational
Centre, Siliguri, West Bengal, expressed, “We are happy to championCBM’s
Include Vidya campaign in Kolkata. We believe that this campaign will raise
awareness and bring a change in attitude at all levels to make inclusion real.Our
district and state level efforts in West Bengal will focus on ending all forms
of discrimination and promoting effective participation of all children with
disabilities to further the cause of inclusive education”.
Supporting this campaign, Mr. Tapas Choudhry,
District Magistrate, DakhinDinajpur District said, “The Include Vidya Campaign
is a very effective medium to spread awareness on inclusive education. This should
an on-going annual campaign to promoteinclusive education”.
Ms.MaitreChakraborty, Deputy Magistrate – Education
of DakhinDinajpur District said, “Looking at CBM’s Include Vidya event and the
performances of children with disabilities along with the children without
disabilities, I feel inclusion is possible”.
CBM
India’s “Include Vidya” Campaign
CBM’s “Include Vidya” Campaign is to include
children with disabilities in education in India. Children with
disabilities too have equal rights to access education. This goes beyond
enrolment to active learning, participation in the classroom as well as
the playing field and other extra-curricular activities. The
campaign complements the government’s flagship programme – SarvaSikshaAbhiyan
(SSA), to achieve its goal of ‘Education for All’.
CBM India, together with partners and other key
stakeholders aims to:
- Increase enrolment and retention of
children with disabilities in mainstream schools.
- Gain community and parents commitment to
ensure inclusive education.
- Ensure children with disabilities in
schools are learning with their peers.
- Appoint special educators in general
schools to fill existing vacancies and make inclusive education
successful.
About CBM India
CBM is the leading disability and development
organisation in India working in 21 states. CBM has over 100 years of expertise
worldwide, and views disability as a development and human rights issue and
addresses poverty as a cause and a consequence of disability.
Since 1967, CBM has been working in India to improve
the quality of life of people with disabilities and those at risk of
disability, from the most disadvantaged groups, irrespective of caste, gender
or religion.
CBM works for people with all disabilities, whether
visual, speech and hearing, physical, people affected by leprosy, intellectual,
developmental or psycho-social impairments.
To
provide quality education, trained manpower is critical. To ensure this, CBM
has been instrumental in starting various professional courses such as ‘Master
of Education (M.Ed.)’ - for educators to teach children with visual impairment
in 1982, Bachelor of Rehabilitation Science in 1983 and subsequently, Masters
of Rehabilitation Science, in esteemed institutions like Bharathidhasan,
Avinashilingam and Ramakrishna Universities in India. CBM has also been
instrumental in developing sign language dictionary, computerized Braille book
production system and assembling and retailing of indigenous braillers to name
a few.
CBM
supports pre-school, primary, secondary, higher and vocational education.
About
Prerana Educational Centre (PEC), Siliguri, West Bengal
PEC is a learning centre for the disabled. This is
an educational and vocational training centre with cross disability approach.
PEC is a State Nodal Agency Partner for National Trust looking after six
districts in West Bengal as a resource centre. PEC conducts the Community Based
Rehabilitation Program in four districts working through the Individual
Household Program. It is a District Level Resource Organization under the
SarvaSikshaAbhiyan Mission, Siliguri District. PEC is, also, the member and
convener of Regional Disability Activists Forum.
Please direct all media queries to:
FairleneSoji, CBM India, Cell: +91-7259012113
BhavaniGiddu,
Footprint Global Communications, Cell: +91-9999500262
ShomaGhosh,
Footprint Global Communications, Cell: +91-9820091196
UttamSinghania,
Kolkata, Cell: +91-9007362265 / +91-9830225843
An Annexure containing the following
information is enclosed herewith:
· Current scenario of Inclusive Education in India – Gaps and challenges
· State Elementary Education Report Card: 2012-13: West Bengal (Gender
wise)
· State Elementary Education Report Card: 2012-13: West Bengal (Nature of
Disability wise)
· Status of Deaf - Blind (DB) Children in SSA (West Bengal)
· State Wise Data of Multiple Disabilities (West Bengal)
· Government efforts under SSA in States (Including West Bengal)
Annexure
Current
scenario of Inclusive Education in India – Gaps and challenges
In
India, children with disabilities constitute 7.8 million (census 2011) which is
around 1.63% of the overall children’s population. The Government of India and
International Development Organizations have been enforcing various schemes and
programmes to ensure every child has access to quality education.
Statistics
on disabled population in India (as per Census 2011)
|
Disabled persons constitute 2.21% - 2.68 crores of total population. Of
this 2.21%,
In seeing – 18.8%, In hearing -18.9%, In speech – 7.9%, In movement –
20.3%, Mental Retardation – 5.6%, Mental Illness – 2.7%, Multiple disability
– 7.9%, any other – 18.4%
|
% age of
disabled population in 5-19 age group in India
|
10-19 age group (female -1.67, male -1.96)
5-9 age group (female -1.44, male -1.63)
|
The District Information on School Education (DISE)
reports that the proportion of enrolment of children with disabilities at
primary level to total enrolment was 1.30% in 2013-14. According to census
2011, the number of children with disabilities between theage of 5 and 10 in
India is estimated to be 2.36 million; however, only 1.72 million are enrolled
in schools.This lack of attention to children with disabilities will also keep
India away from achieving the MDG2 - Universal primary education.
The enrolment in upper primary level has increased
from 0.90% in 2012-13 to 1.18% in 2013-14, however, surveys show very low
enrolment of children with disabilities beyond primary level. The various
barriers children with disabilities face in enrolling and continuing in school
are physical accessibility, trained teachers, study materials, and attitudinal
barriers.
RTE
mandates free and compulsory education to all children from 6-14 years of age.
Thekey objective of RTE- SSA is Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE).
Threeimportant aspects of UEE are access, enrolment and retention of all
children in 6-14 yearsof age. This goal of UEE, has further been facilitated by
the Constitutional (86thAmendment) Act, making free and compulsory
elementary education a Fundamental Right,for all the children in the age group
of 6-14 years. This Amendment has given a new thrustto the education of
Children With Special Needs (CWSN), as without their inclusion, theobjective of
UEE cannot be achieved. In-fact inclusion of one of the groups, which
isextremely crucial for UEE, is perhaps that of the CWSN. Hence, education of
CWSN is animportant component of SSA.
Status
of Deaf - Blind (DB) Children in SSA (West Bengal)
DB
CWSN identified
|
DB
Enrolled in Schools
|
DB
CWSN Enrolled SRP*
|
DB
CWSN provided HBE#
|
941
|
499
|
386
|
56
|
State
Wise Data of Multiple Disabilities (West Bengal)
Identified
|
Enrolled
|
SRP
|
HBE
|
25092
|
15488
|
2526
|
6312
|
*SRP - School Readiness Programme
#HBE - Home Based Education
Government efforts underSSA in States (Including West
Bengal)
Several
novel initiatives have been taken up toaddress the diverse needs of children
with disabilities. An endeavour has also been made todevelop the necessary
attitude, skills and competencies teachers require to dealeffectively with
children with various disabilities. The focus of SSA is nowon reaching out to CWSN
- those out of school, not covered so far and developing a strategythat will
ensure that every child with disability receives support for quality education.
Thisperhaps is the biggest challenge
of all and a crucial determinant of the success of the inclusive education
programme under SSA.
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