Shri Hamid Ansari, Hon’ble Upa Rashtrapatiji,

Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, Hon’ble Chief Minister,

Smt. K.K. Shylaja, Hon’ble Minister for Health & Social Justice

Shri V.S. Sivakumar, MLA

Shri V.K. Prasanth, Mayor, Thiruvananthapuram Corporation

Shri Rajeev Sadanandan, IAS, Addl. Chief Secretary

Smt. Rani George, IAS, Secretary to Government  Social Justice Department

Shri V.K. Madhu, President, District Panchayat, Thiruvananthapuram

Shri Kesavendra Kumar, IAS, Director, National Health Mission

Smt. T.V. Anupama, Director, Social Justice Department

Prof. Gopinath Muthukas, Magician and Motivator,

Dr. Mohamed Asheel, Executive Director, Kerala Social Security Mission

Sahodaree Sahodaranmaare,

Ellaavarkkum Ente Namaskaaram,

       It gives me immense joy to preside over the meeting held for the inauguration of the Anuyatra Project, which has been planned as a Right based Life cycle approach in disability Management. 

       We are extremely fortunate to have the Hon’ble Vice President of India to inaugurate this unique Project.  On behalf of the people of the State, I extend to our Hon’ble Upa Rashtrapatiji a warm and cordial welcome to Kerala.

       As we all know, the community prevalence of disability in Kerala is nearly 3%, which comes to over 7.93 lakh persons. One of the reasons for increased levels of disability is the delay in early identification and intervention of developmental disorders. We need to manage the situation through early identification and intervention, skill identification of the differently abled and vocational training from early schooling onwards so that a differently abled child comes out of school as a self-reliant individual capable of being rehabilitated.

       This approach calls for a coordinated functioning of different departments like Health, Education, Social Justice, Local Self-Government etc. We also need to ensure that every spot in Kerala is disabled-friendly.  I am happy that the Anuyatra Project seeks to address the issue of disability in a comprehensive manner, thereby transforming Kerala into a Disabled Friendly State.

       Personally, I have another reason to feel satisfied. As  a former Judge of Supreme Court who gave the verdict on providing 3% reservation and various directions to all Governments in respect of Persons with Disabilities – of course, it has recently been increased to 4% by Parliament– I am glad that Anuyatra  envisages a broader implementation of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act of 1995 by making it more widely known and by covering all the 21 categories of disabilities mentioned in the Act. It is gratifying to note that the Project includes specific programs for each type of disability and takes care not to ignore the disabled among the marginalized societies.  

        Among the programmes planned as part of Anuyatra are Training for teachers to ensure Inclusive education, setting up model Child Rehabilitation Centres, Kaathoram programme for Hearing screening, Autism management, Centralised Help-desk, Swavlamban Health Insurance scheme, training in Magic and  mobile intervention units to facilitate early screening and awareness creation.

Anuyatra is Kerala's unique way of better enabling of the differently abled. Through this, we convey our love  and our strong resolve to help them to realize their full potential as individuals. I am certain that the success of  Anuyatra would help Kerala script a new model of human development for other States to follow.

I congratulate the Department of Social Justice, State Initiative on Disabilities-Kerala and Kerala Social Security Mission for devising this comprehensive Project and hope that other participating departments would offer their    best contribution and cooperation.  I also compliment           Shri Gopinath Muthukad and his team for showing us the beauty of child creativity through the Magic performance by our beloved children. I convey my love and regards to those children and wish them all the best.

       Let me conclude by hoping that Anuyatra will prove to the world that in future, Disability shall never hamper any child's development as an individual. Instead, it would mark the beginning of a journey together, hand in hand with all of us.

       With these words, I request our Hon’ble Upa Rashtrapatiji to inaugurate the Anuyatra Project and to address the gathering.

Ellaavarkkum Ente Aashamsakal

Nanni

Jai Hind