Silchar, Feb. 24: The departments of social work of eight different universities of the Northeast have expressed willingness to incorporate disability management as a special paper in the curriculum from the next academic session.

A consultation meeting on disability management studies at the Premendra Mohan Goswami seminar hall of the Assam University was held here today.

Representatives of Assam University, Silchar, Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Manipur, Mizoram University, North East Institute of Social Sciences and Research, Nagaland, University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya, Manipur University and Rajib Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh participated in the meeting, which was organised by Christian Blind Mission (CBM) in association with the Social Work department of Assam University.

Sara Varughese, regional director, CBM, expressed her happiness over the willingness of all the Northeast universities to incorporate disability management as a paper in the curriculum.

"We have approached the social work departments of these varsities to include disability management as a special paper so that the students can communicate with the differently-abled persons and understand their problems when they visit different communities. Social work students have a direct link with the community and thus we laid stress on incorporating the paper in social work curriculum," Varughese said.

CBM is an international Christian development organisation working for people with disabilities worldwide. Its vision is of an inclusive world in which all persons with disabilities enjoy their human rights and achieve their full potential.

"A curriculum will be framed in today's meeting and be passed in the school board meeting so that the paper can be included in the curriculum of the social work department from the next session in July," said Lalzo S. Thangiom, convener of the meeting and an assistant professor of the social work department of Assam University.

Today's meeting discussed in details the importance of including paper on disability in the social work curriculum of Northeast universities.

"Several educational institutes in south India have already incorporated disability paper in the curriculum in various departments. We hope that other departments of Northeast universities will also include this paper," Varughese said.

Thangiom said Assam University would work as a nodal institution in implementing the project in the Northeast.

CBM started its work in India in 1967. The organisation currently operates from its South Asia regional office based in Bangalore. Currently, they support 161 projects in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

India ranks 136th among 186 countries, according to the human development report in 2013.

Varughese underscored the importance of creating disabled-friendly infrastructure in all the educational institutes. She said differently-abled persons should be given proper education, confidence and opportunity to earn. "They should be given all the facilities so that they can live their life with dignity."