Jan. 25: Activists working for the rights of the disabled want to share the city’s “success story” with other northeastern states by addressing the problems of the physically-challenged in the region.

On Sunday, the city will pay host to more than 60 disabled persons from across the Northeast at a regional workshop on “Disability and law: issues and challenges” under the aegis of Disability Law Unit (DLU), Northeast, at The Yellow Table — a popular eatery in the city.

This is for the for first time that such a large number of activists working for the cause of the disabled will discuss issues pertaining to disability and ways to eradicate it.

“Till now, the city has been the main beneficiary of all works done for them. The workshop will be a departure from the previous practice as the participants will chart out a plan to reach out to each and every disabled persons residing even in the remotest corners of the region. We want to diversify and be a part of rehabilitation process in the entire region,” said Armaan Ali, project coordinator of the unit.

“The government has no concrete policy. The situation is so pathetic that a disabled is often physically assaulted,” Ali said.

According to him, the entire Northeast is yet to get the benefits of three per cent job reservation for the disabled in the government sector. Another area of concern is their lack of access to education.

According to the latest survey done by Community Based Rehabilitation Centre, a voluntary organisation, Assam has more than 13 lakh disabled, of which less than two per cent have access to education and less than one per cent to employment.

“The situation is the same in the other states of the Northeast where both education and employment remain a distant dream for the disabled,” said Anju Talukdar, the assistant project coordinator of the unit. The workshop will also discuss the feasibility of imparting vocational training to the disabled.

Talukdar is hopeful that the problem of unemployment will be solved to a great extent.