On the occasion of Children’s Day, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment presented the Awards to the winners of ‘Drawing and Painting Competition on Accessible India Campaign’ at a felicitation event organized by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) under M/o Social Justice and Empowerment at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, New Delhi today. Ministers of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Ramdas Athawale and Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar were also present on this occasion.
Addressing on the occasion, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot said that his ministry is fully committed to the welfare of Divyangjans and several new schemes and programs have been initiated during past 3 years. He said that the categories of Divyangjans have been increased from 7 to 21 to cover more Divyangjans. He congratulated all award winners of the painting competition and also applauded the efforts of DEPwD for organizing such a useful competition.
Total 58 winners of this competition were awarded cash prize and certificates in a colorful ceremony. Earlier, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities organized a Drawing and Painting Competition at the National Bal Bhawan for school students including Students with Disabilities on the theme of “Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities” on Thursday (2nd November 2017) and around 1200 students participated.
The school students in three categories i.e. Junior, Middle and Senior level participated in the competition. The topics of the competition were provided level wise; Junior level- ‘Accessible Playgrounds and Parks’ & ‘Accessible Sports for PwDs’, for Middle level- ‘Accessible Buildings, Tourist Places, Monuments, Pilgrimage sites’ and for Senior level- ‘Accessible Public Transport’ and ‘Accessible Technologies for Persons with Disabilities’.
The jury members for selecting the award were Shri Soumen Bhowmick, Ms Sunita Lamba, Shri Vijay Kiyawat, Shri Santosh Kumar Sahni and Shri Hemant Singh, while, Shri Vikash Prasad, Director, DEPwD was representing the Department in the six-member-jury panel. The jury panel carefully scrutinized the paintings and submitted the results to the Department on 2nd November, 2017.
DEPwD is running the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) for creating universal accessibility in the built environment, public transportation and Information & Communication Technology eco-system. The Campaign was launched by the Prime Minister on 3rd December 2015 on the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Prime Minister had desired that the campaign is made a mass movement by involving citizens and sensitizing the society towards disability and the need for accessibility. In continuation to various sensitization campaigns run by the DEPwD, “Drawing and Painting Competition” was the latest chapter in the efforts to reach out to the young minds.
Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India