Guwahati (Assam) : To open up new vistas for persons with disabilities through self-employment, Shishu Sarothi on Thursday inaugurated a vocational unit to provide training, enhance skills and competency through diversified vocational courses. This programme is supported by the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiative (APPI), Bangalore.
The unit will improve livelihood options for youths with disabilities in batches of 30.
An estimated 386 million of the world’s working-age people have some kind of disability as per ILO data. Of the 70 million persons with disabilities in India, only about 100,000 have succeeded in obtaining employment in industry.
The chief guest of the inaugural programme Manoj Kumar Das, Director, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship deliberated upon the significance of innovation in the field of entrepreneurship. Emphasizing the need for training tailored to meet the needs of persons with disabilities, he stated that disabled youth can indeed become productive contributors and at the same time, also become empowered and independent.
The programme was also attended by Arpit Agarwal, an alumnus of the National Institute of Design and an independent design professional who owns a brand which specializes in lifestyle products inspired by North East India. He is in the process of developing a module for vocational education programme and will be supporting the vocational unit as a trainer.
Speaking on the occasion, Arman Ali, executive director, Shishu Sarothi hoped that this initiative of the organization would be an effective intervention for improving the livelihood options for persons with disabilities.
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