Consultation on women with disabilities next week

A national consultation on women with disabilities will be held next week to discuss issues pertaining to differently-abled women like accessible toilets and better employment opportunities.
The consultation will see the participation of various government departments and ministries including transport and railways.
There are over 2.19 crore disabled people in the country of which more than 90 lakh are women.
Issues pertaining to differently-abled women like accessible toilets and better employment opportunities have never been touched upon, National Commission for Women Chief Lalitha Kumaramangalam said
"We have invited almost all ministries so that there could be better coordination between the various departments in addressing the problems of disabled women," she said.

The problem of sanitation for disabled women has not been solved.

"We have called people related to sanitation as well. Swach Bharat is such a big programme. I don't think need of disabled women have really been looked at," she said.
The consultation, which will not only focus on physically disabled but also on mentally challenged women, will witness detailed discussion on disability law, which provides special reservation to such persons.
"Even the government departments do not comply with the law. Many of them do not even know about it. So, we will discuss it in detail to make everybody understand it," she said.

The Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act provides for separate 1 per cent reservation for each of the three categories of persons with disabilities -- persons suffering from vision loss and low vision, those suffering from hearing disability and those suffering from loco-motor disability or cerebral palsy.
The chief said all government departments are receptive towards the upcoming consultation. "Everybody is very keen on taking it forward. We have also called civil society as there are a lot of them who are doing good work in this field," she said.