Dimapur: Nagaland is to have  a National Career Service Centre for the Differently Abled (NCSC-DA). It will benefit an estimated 29,000 Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in the northeastern state.

The Industrial Training Institute (ITI) campus at Khushiabill, Dimapur will host the proposed centre.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Nagaland government and the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment to establish the centre on Saturday (29 Jnuary).

NCSC-DA assistant director (employment), Ram Kishor Sharma signed the MoU on behalf of the Union labour and employment ministry, whilethe  Nagaland director of employment, skill development and entrepreneurship, Chiden Yaden inked it it on behalf of the state government.

The Nagaland centre  the 22nd such centre in the country. The  Vocational Rehabilitation Centres for the Handicapped were started in 1968 across India.

Empowering persons with disabilities [ PWDs]  is the mission objective of the programme. It provides  vocational guidance, career counselling, skill development and other rehabilitation support.

Identifying the needs of PWDs, creating community awareness and social responsibility on their problems, is what the centre dies. It also helps  persons with special needs demonstrate their abilities. It provides  professional guidance based on their residual functional abilities.

According to Sharma, the NCSC-DA is designed to serve as a residential training centre for the PwDs and its costs are sponsored by the Union labour and employment ministry, including stipends to the trainees. He said the centre will be for non-formal skill development.

Sharma said PwDs, between the ages of  15 and 50, will be trained in batches of 20 to 25 at the centre and a stipend of Rs 2500 per head will be paid to them, during the period of their training.

He added that the centre will function under the Union ministry of labour and employment while the state government will manage its technical aspects.

Yaden said the centre will temporarily function from the existing buildings at ITI while the permanent infrastructure will be built within the campus itself. The permanent structure for the training centre will be disabled-friendly, he said.

  development, Disability, Northeast