PANAJI
The State Social Welfare department has undertaken the project of 'government at your doorstep' from March this year, and the field workers appointed under this department visit homes on a daily basis to help the persons with disabilities register their names for UDID card.
To make the process of registration for UDID cards easy, the Social Welfare department has appointed field workers and field assistants whose efforts were fruitful and 2,859 Divyangas in the State could register their names for the UDID cards, so far. Now the department has decided to utilise the services of panchayats and to initiate a special campaign on district level, to reach out to the Divyangas. Under this campaign, two to three camps will be organised on a daily basis in each of the talukas or municipality level.
According to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD Act) Act, 2016, and Divyang Policy, it is compulsory for the persons falling in 21 categories of disabilities to have UDID card. The census 2011 figures point out that there are 33012 persons with disabilities in Goa, and only 4436 persons from these have received the UDID card so far. Many of the persons with disabilities do not possess this card, due to lack of information regarding the card, or lack of knowledge of information technology. Considering these drawbacks and hurdles, the State Social Welfare department has implemented 'governance at your doorstep' concept and the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities has to take review of this work.
After the launch of the 'doorstep government' initiative in September last year, many government departments have come into action and are now obliging the citizens by ensuring the redressal of their grievances and allowing them to enjoy their rights. In an effort to ensure that every citizen of Goa, including person with disabilities (PwDs), avails the full benefits of his rights, the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (SCPD) has come into action.
Unique Disability ID (UDID), an initiative by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, government of India, was being implemented with a view of creating a national database for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and to issue a Unique Disability Identity Card to each person with disabilities.
The project aimed to encourage transparency, efficiency and ease of delivering the government benefits to the person with disabilities, but also ensure uniformity. It also aimed at stream -lining the tracking of physical and financial progress of beneficiary at all levels of hierarchy of implementation - from village, block, level, district, state and national level.
Briefing on the UDID cards, required by the persons with disabilities to avail the various benefits of various schemes of State and Central government, SCPD Guruprasad Pawaskar stated that the department of Social Welfare has initiated a programme 'government at your doorstep' so that these persons do not have to go to various departments to get the card issued.
To conduct the survey, the State Social Welfare department has appointed special field workers to help the disabled persons get their UDID cards at their doorstep. These field workers collect the information regarding persons with disabilities, and upload the data on the special computer system (https://www.swavlambancard.gov.in/) and inform them about the various schemes of State government.
