News

Volume 8 Issue 8 - November 15, 2011

A children’s festival with a message

Swabhiman, a Disability Information and Resource Centre established in 2001 and a member of the National Disability Network, has been trying to create an equitable society for persons with disabilities since its inception. As always, it marked Children’s Day with the Anjali National Children’s Festival. The agenda this year was to showcase the diverse work and the archive of achievements from 2001 to 2010.

The festival also chronicled the work undertaken by sister concerns of Swabhiman such as Equity, which focuses on placement of persons with disabilities and Sandhan which aims to create responsible citizens by developing think tanks in different colleges. Various publications of the organisation were also put on display for people to see, including ‘Blue File’ – a quarterly compilation of newspaper articles on disability in India, ‘Giant Leap Forward’ – the quarterly newsletter of Swabhiman, ‘Concessions & Facilities’ – the first and only compilation of various facilities provided to persons with disabilities by the Government of India and other such works.

The last two years have been particularly eventful for the organisation. They formed the Disability Commission in Orissa in 2010, helped to carry out the 2011 census on disability in Orissa and were also consulted by the State Government in the formation of the Vision 2020 Document.