PANAJI
Goa’s Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Desai and State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities Guruprasad Pawaskar visited New Delhi to invite key leaders for the International Purple Festival “ Goa 2025, which will take place from 9 to 12 October.
During their visit, they met Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Home Minister Ashish Sood, and Social Welfare Minister Ravinder Singh (Indraj), extending a formal invitation for the festival. They discussed various issues related to persons with disabilities (PwDs), focusing on welfare, inclusion, and accessibility.
The Purple Festival 2025, with the theme “Universal Design “ Inclusive Thinking in Action,” aims to encourage society to rethink accessibility and dignity for all. The Goa team and Delhi leaders exchanged ideas and best practices on disability policies, exploring collaboration opportunities to improve services for PwDs.
The Delhi Chief Minister showed keen interest in the festival and requested Goa’s support to organise a similar event in Delhi. Plans for conducting a detailed survey of PwDs to improve policy planning and service delivery were also discussed.
Officials from the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Government of India, including Additional Secretary Manmeet Kaur Nanda and Dy Director General Richa Shankar, attended the meetings. Representatives from ALIMCO and the Chief Commissioner’s office were also present.
The Goa Government is working to build strong partnerships nationwide to make the Purple Festival 2025 a landmark event for inclusivity and empowerment across India.
