Need to grade national institutes for differently-abled: Govt

The seven national institutes functioning under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities need to be graded to set targets and assess their performance, the government said today.
Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said this while chairing a meeting to review the performance of these national institutes and eight Composite Regional Centres (CRCs) functioning under them, a statement here said.
The minister instructed that grading of the institutes be carried out to set targets and assess their performance and that it should be ensured that the grading should include extent of benefits of skill development and training of youth, it added.

A decision was also taken to provide modern services in collaboration with international agencies for providing aid and assistive devices of superior technology to persons with disabilities in rehabilitation centres, it said.
New buildings for CRCs would be started in the current year at Patna, Srinagar, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Kozhikode, Guwahati and Lucknow.
Emphasising the need for taking a cue from the Prime Minister's Digital India Programme, Gehlot said there is an urgent need to provide Universal IDs to every person with disability in the country.
The statement also said that all the national institutes under the department achieved a target of providing rehabilitation services to more than 10 lakh beneficiaries for the first time.