VP Naidu addresses nation on International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday urged the nation to treat disabled people with empathy, not sympathy.

Addressing a gathering here on the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the vice president said the foremost duty of every person should be to appreciate, and encourage people with any disability and to be sensitive towards them.

"As long as officials in the offices are insensitive towards these people, no law can be successfully implemented. They must be treated with empathy, and not sympathy," he said.

Naidu added, "I feel we must not call them disabled, but differently-abled."

He also appreciated the Assam Government for providing Rs 5,000 each to each person with a disability in the state under the Deen Dayal Divyangjan Sahajya Achoni.