Manipur Social Welfare Minister Heikham Dingo on Sunday said that evolving technological advancements must be properly utilised to help persons with disabilities (PWDs) lead a normal inclusive life in the society.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the Parivartan Centre constructed under EnAble India’s ‘See a million campaign’ and felicitation programme of 11 individuals with visual impairment; EnAble India is a non-profit organisation based in Bengaluru, India.
The inaugural function and felicitation programme was organised by the Welfare Association for the Blind Manipur in association with Enable India.
The social welfare minister stated that the Parivartan centre would immensely benefit visually impaired people in Manipur.
“With fast pace development of the world, every individual needs to keep up with the changing technological dimensions; the centre will immensely benefit visually impaired people in catching up with these changes,” he said.
Dingo further informed that similar centres had been constructed across different parts of India to provide digital literacy to visually impaired individuals. All the centres had been constructed under EnAble India’s ‘See a Million campaign’, he added.
“Visually impaired people need not worry about keeping up with the changing world, drastic jump in science and technology is slowly bridging all gaps between different groups of people,” he said.
The social welfare minister further stated that such minute improvements in different aspects of technology would aid visually impaired people in competing with normal individuals.
Giving his keynote address, secretary of the Welfare Association for the Blind, Konsam Sadananda maintained that it is crucial for visually impaired individuals to properly exploit technological advancements for their own benefit.
He further emphasized the importance of digital literacy training for PWDs to utilize the vast array of digital platforms in the world.
“Under the centre, six months digital literacy training programme will be meted out to visually impaired people,” he informed.
Dayananda further highlighted that visually impaired individuals from Manipur had been bringing laurels to the state in different fields.
During the programme 11 visually impaired individuals were felicitated for their achievements in various fields which include academics, sports, art and culture.
Deputy director (Disability) of Social Welfare department AS Robinson, founder and chief enabler of EnAble India Shanti Raghavan along with visually impaired students of the centre were present at the inaugural function.
