Social Justice Ministry organises ‘Cochlear Implant Awareness Programme’

Social Justice Ministry organises ‘Cochlear Implant Awareness Programme’

07.05.2018
The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment organised a ‘Cochlear Implant Awareness Programme’ on May 6, 2018 at Huda Convention Centre in Faridabad, Haryana.

The programme was organised by DEPwD in association with Indian Red Cross Society and Sarvodaya Hospital & Research Centre. The Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment, Krishan Pal Gurjar was the Chief Guest in the programme.

Speaking on the occasion, Krishan Pal Gurjar said that under the Assistance to Disabled persons (ADIP) scheme of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), there is a provision for Cochlear Implant surgeries of hearing impaired children up to the age of 5 years at the cost of Rs 6.00 Lakhs per unit.

He added that after successful Cochlear implant surgeries, the child is able to hear and speak like normal children.

Significance

The event named Swar Swagtam was of great importance to create awareness among the public about the Cochlear Implant Programme under the Assistance to Disabled persons (ADIP) scheme of the Department.

About Cochlear Implant

• The cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly or severely deaf in both ears;

• The modern technology mainly aims to help young children who have severe to profound deafness in both ears, as due to hearing impairment, they are not able to speak.

• With the help of the implant, such children will not only be able to hear normally through one ear but with post surgical rehabilitation, they will be able to speak also.

Cost of the Implant

The Cochlear Implants are costly and not affordable.

Hence, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has introduced Cochlear Implant programme under revised scheme of Assistance to Disabled Persons for purchase/fitting of aids and appliances (ADIP) for the poor and needy young children.

Background

• With the implementation of Cochlear Implant program by the Ministry through Ali Yavar Jung National Institute of Speech and Hearing Disabilities (Divyangjan), Mumbai, around 1149 surgeries (916 under ADIP Scheme and 233 under CSR) have been conducted across India during the last 4 years, from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

• Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for Speech and Hearing Disabilities (AYNISHD), Mumbai is the Nodal Agency for Cochlear Implant Surgeries.

• The government has also empanelled 172 hospitals all over India to conduct the cochlear implant surgery.

• Most significant outcome of this program is reduction in the cost of implantation.

• The applicants have to apply based on advertisement/details on the website - adipcochlearimplant.in.

1149 Cochlear Implant Surgeries have been conducted Successfully during The Last 4 Years – Krishan Pal Gurjar

06.05.2018
Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment has said that 1149 Cochlear Implant Surgeries have been conducted successfully during the last 4 years (from 2014-15 to 2017-18). Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for Speech and Hearing Disabilities (AYNISHD), Mumbai is the Nodal Agency for Cochlear Implant Surgeries and the Government has empanelled 172 Hospitals (both Government & Private) throughout the country for Cochlear Implant Surgeries. He was addressing after inaugurating the ‘Cochlear Implant Awareness Programme’ entitled ‘Swar Swagtam’ organized by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in association with Indian Red Cross Society and Sarvodaya Hospital and Research Centre in Faridabad, Haryana today.The Minister said that under ADIP Scheme of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), there is a provision for Cochlear Implant surgeries of Hearing Impaired children’s up to the age of 5 years at the cost of Rs.6.00 Lakhs per unit.After successful Cochlear Implant Surgeries, the child is able to hear and speak like normal Children.He opined that such awareness programs are of great importance for creating awareness among the public about the Cochlear Implant Programme under ADIP Scheme of the Department.Smt. Shakuntala Doley Gamlin, Secretary, DEPwD (Divyangjan); Dr Ashok Kumar Sinha, Director NIHH; Dr. Prabodh Seth, Joint Secretary, (Divyangjan); Shri D.R. Sareen Managing Director, ALIMCO; Shri D. R. Sharma, General Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society (Haryana State); Dr Rakesh Gupta, Chairman, Sarvodaya Hospital; and Dr Ravi Bhatia, HoD, Centre for ENT & Cochlear Implant, Sarvodaya Hospital also addressed the gathering.

Cochlear Implant is a modern technology to help young children who have severe to profound deafness in both ears. Because of hearing impairment, they are not able to speak. Cochlear Implant provides such children to hear normally in one ear and with post surgical rehabilitation they are able to speak also. Cochlear Implants are costly and were not affordable by all. Keeping in mind “Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas”, the DEPwD, Ministry of SJ&E is providing benefit of modern technology to poor persons also. It is in this direction, the Ministry has introduced Cochlear Implant programme under revised Scheme of Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP) for the poor and needy young children.With the implementation of Cochlear Implant program by the Ministry of SJ&E through Ali Yavar Jung National Institute of Speech and Hearing Disabilities (Divyangjan), Mumbai, around 1149 surgeries (916 under ADIP Scheme and 233 under CSR) have been conducted across India. The Applicants have to apply based on advertisement/details on the website to AYJNISHD, Mumbai: adipcochlearimplant.in.All the children are undergoing post-operative rehabilitation. The Ministry has empanelled 172 hospitals all over India to conduct the cochlear implant surgery. Most important outcome of this program is reduction in the cost of implantation and empowers children with deafness to hear and develop speech.Sarvodaya Hospital & Research Centre, Faridabad has been part of this scheme and has operated 30 kids from different parts of North India. Dr Ravi Bhatia, Senior Consultant, Sarvodaya Hospital & Research Centre is doing Cochlear Implant for last 2 years.

1149 Cochlear Implant Surgeries performed in 4 yrs: MoS Gurjar

Demand for residential school for hearing impaired

Baghlingampally: The Development Society for the Deaf demanded for a residential school for the hearing impaired and 4G phones for people who learnt sign language. The Development Society for the Deaf conducted a meeting here on Sunday at Sundarayya Vigyana Kendram.

The members stated that there are five lakh people in the state and demanded reservation in jobs and implementation of the new Panchayat Raj Act. The Telangana State committee members want the government to allot a building in Hyderabad to conduct events and programmes.

Former MP Vivek and advisor to Telangana Government handed over sewing machines to the needy. Vallabhaneni Prasad said, “The government needs to protect the hearing impaired and provide support in the form of pensions of Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000 for the unemployed as they are unable to earn a livelihood.”

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HC orders 4% quota for disabled in court staff recruitment

05.05.2018
The Bombay High Court today held that though it is an autonomous institution, it should abide by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and provide an adequate quota for the disabled persons while recruiting judicial staff.

The Bombay High Court today held that though it is an autonomous institution, it should abide by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and provide an adequate quota for the disabled persons while recruiting judicial staff. A bench of Justices Naresh Patil and G S Kulkarni directed the high court administration to keep 4 per cent of the posts vacant while recruiting over 8,000 administrative posts in the district courts.

Once the ongoing recruitment drive was complete, the administration should conduct a special drive to fill up 4 per cent posts under the Disabilities Act (which provides for a quota for the disabled persons), the judges said.

Last month, the bench had stayed the process for recruitment of stenographers, junior clerks and peons after it was pointed out that the high court administration had, while issuing advertisement, failed to reserve 4 per cent posts for the disabled.

The issue was raised by the National Federation of Blind and some individuals who filed petitions challenging the advertisement issued on March 28.

The advertisement sought applications for 1,013 posts of stenographers, 4,738 posts of junior clerks and 3,170 posts of peons in district courts.

It mentioned only a 2 per cent quota for persons with disabilities -- one per cent for those with a hearing impairment and the rest for those having "one affected leg".

Section 34 of the Disabilities Act mandates a 4 per cent quota, and the list of disabilities covered under the Act includes various locomotor disorders, visual handicap and intellectual disabilities.

Advocate Uday Warunjikar, petitioners' lawyer, argued that by denying the rightful opportunity" to the persons with disabilities, the high court administration was defeating the purpose of the Central legislation.

The administration argued that even if the state and the Centre provide funds for the court, the high court is "independent" of the government, and therefore the Section 34 of the Act would not be applicable to it.

The high court disagreed with this contention.

Though the high court is a "constitutional and an autonomous authority subordinate to none", its rules should be in "consonance with the philosophy of our Constitution", it said.

The bench did not continue the stay to the recruitment drive since over 3.5 lakh applications have been received."A balanced solution is to be found. Therefore, the high court shall keep 4 per cent seats/posts vacant... and these seats shall be filled in through a special drive after suitable posts are identified," the bench said.

Hearing Impaired Girl Child Project completes 3 years

Hearing Impaired Girl Child Project completes 3 years

05.05.2018, Jubilee Hills: IPL Sunrisers team members, Rashid Khan, Carlos Brathwaite, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul and Tom Moody joined the celebrations of over 70 hearing impaired girls benefitting from the ‘Hearing Impaired Girl Child Project’ (HIGCP). The project is initiated by Apollo Hospital and Sahi three years ago in 2015.

If the hearing impairment is left untreated in the first 3-5 years of life these children end up with hearing and speech disorders throughout their lifetime. As per World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates approximately 63 million people suffer from significant hearing impairment every year in India. Four babies in every 1,000 born suffer from severe to profound hearing loss in India.

HIGCP has been helping hearing impaired girls under the age of 15 by providing the State of the art cochlear implant and performing the surgery free of cost, HIGCP bears the cost of Rs 8 lakh per child. Dr E C Vinay Kumar Head Department of ENT at Apollo Health City and Secretary said that that a hearing-impaired girl is at a greater risk of facing abuse both physically and mentally. He added that historically too, the need of a female child is often neglected by parents and the prohibitive cost of treatment only inhibits them, they instead prefer to divert their limited resources to address their son’s aspiration.

Cochlear Implant Surgery will empower a hearing-impaired girl child, help her evolve into a respectable citizen, besides enabling her to achieve her dreams and ambitions. She will be able to live life on her own terms said Dr Rambabu,ENT Surgeon at Apollo Health city and Director Medical Service of Sahi.

Jagathy school retains its glory

05.05.2018
Thiruvananthapuram: This year too, Government School for Deaf and Dumb, Jagathy, retained cent per cent success when the SSLC examination 2018 results were declared on Friday. A total of eight students from the school who appeared for the examination have passed.
Two students from the technical high school section and six from high school section appeared for the examination.

As many as 15 students from the school had passed the examination in the previous academic year.

A total of 63 students are studying in the school from Class I to X.

The school had arranged special evening classes after the school hours to prepare the students for the public examination.

“The school has been scoring cent per cent for the past many years. Resource teachers stayed back after school hours to conduct classes till evening hours. Extra classes were held on Saturday. Similar to other government schools, students were made to practise previous year question papers,” said an official of the school.

Hearing Impaired Law Grad, Who Was Instrumental For Reservation For Hearing Impaired Candidates In DJS Gets 9th Rank In Civil Service Exam...

01.05.2018
Among the five National Law School Delhi Graduates who have made it to the merit list of the UPSC Civil Service Examination, 2017 is Ms. Saumya Sharma. She has managed to beat all odds and secure 9th rank in her first attempt, despite her impairment. However, this isn’t the first time that she has made headlines....

Back in 2016, when she was a final year student, Saumya had drawn the attention of the Delhi High Court towards the advertisement notifying the Delhi Judicial Services Examination, 2015 and the ‘important instructions’ annexed thereto. The advertisement had limited the relaxation of 10 years in the upper age limit and horizontal reservation of 3% available to the Physically Handicapped candidates to only the visually and orthopedically-disabled. The letter demanded that the benefit be extended to those with hearing impairments as well.

While she had acknowledged a Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) notification stating that jobs of judges and magistrates subordinate in lower judiciary are not identified for hearing-impaired candidates, she had elaborated on reasons why the notification was not binding on the Delhi High Court.

She had also placed reliance on the judgment in the case of Union of India v. National Federation of the Blind [(2013) 10 SCC 772], wherein the Supreme Court interpreted Section 33 of the erstwhile Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995 to mean that every appropriate government has to appoint a minimum of 3% vacancies in an establishment, out of which 1% each shall be reserved for persons suffering from blindness and low vision, persons suffering from hearing impairment and persons suffering from locomotor or cerebral palsy in the posts identified for each disability.

So persuasive was her letter, and so cogent were her arguments that the relaxations were made available to those with hearing impairments, without any litigation, by Chief Justice G. Rohini in her administrative capacity.

Having cracked the UPSC now, she is sure to bring about more positive change in the system. We wish her all the very best for her future endeavors!

Speaking to LiveLaw Dr. Anup Surendrnath, Assistant Professor NLU-D and Director of the Centre on the Death Penalty said.

“Saumya was in my courses on constitutional law and comparative rights adjudication and put in a particularly impressive performance in the seminar course on comparative rights. Saumya always had that rare quality that you seek in students – the ability to speak truth to power. Intellectually very sharp and always well prepared, Saumya never hesitated to articulate her views, however unpopular or non-traditional those views might have been. And it came to the fore in the manner in which she took up the issue of benefits not being extended to the hearing impaired in recruitment for the Delhi Judicial Services. I am sure she will be an incredible asset to the bureaucracy of this country and is a name we are bound to hear often in the decades ahead.”

Note: In the 2017 examination, 29 physically disabled persons- 9 orthopedically handicapped, 8 visually challenged, and 12 hearing impaired- got selected.