Chairman of Child Concern Sameer Kumar Mahaseth (right) and other members at the workshop at Scada Business Centre in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Aug. 28: Government officials and members of non-government organisations (NGO) need to work in tandem to ensure social security and rights of differently abled.

Chairman of Child Concern, an NGO, Sameer Kumar Mahaseth today told the local-level committee members entrusted with taking welfare schemes to differently abled people.

The occasion was a state-level workshop organised by Child Concern for its local-level committee members at Scada Business Centre. The NGO is also the state nodal agency centre of National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with AutIsm, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.

Associated members of the nodal agency also attended the workshop, the first after Child Concern took the responsibility of the state nodal agency centre in April.

At the workshop, field workers discussed the problems faced by them at the grassroots level in their endeavour to take the welfare schemes to the differently abled people. The inception, role and objective of the trust were also discussed. However, many field workers rued unawareness among government officials at the district- and the block-level, who play an important part in extending services and schemes meant for the differently abled.

At present, Child Concern has local-level committees in 14 districts of the state. Each local-level committee comprise the district magistrate, who is the chairperson of the committee, an NGO registered with the national trust and a differently abled person.

Sunil Kumar, a local-level committee member from Samastipur, said: “Many times we went to the district magistrate to call his attention to the various schemes meant for the differently abled but we don’t get a patient hearing. There is a need for awareness among the district magistrates so that they can take up issues of such persons seriously and take instant action.”

Several members at the workshop also emphasised that NGOs should not resist the hard work needed to ensure the welfare of the differently abled.