Agartala, Aug 06, 2022, TRIPURATIMES Desk

The Tripura government has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for setting up four new District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs) in the state.

The four centres have been proposed to be set up at North Tripura, Khowai, Sepahijala and South Tripura. The proposal has been sent for approval and sanction of fund, an official said on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference, additional director of Social Welfare and Social Education- L. Hrangchal highlighted the achievements and future plans of the department.

He said, the Department of Social Welfare and Social Education has been working for the welfare and protection of the children, pregnant-Lactating mother, women and support of senior citizens including the PWDs or Divyanjans, cured mental patients, drugs reduction and awareness programmes, welfare of Transgenders.

A Senior Citizen Helpline is set come up in the state by the current month, he announced.

The Senior Citizen Helpline project has been taken up by Alankit Assignment Ltd in collaboration with the National Institute of Social Defense (NISD) and the agency has completed the setup of the Institute at Melarmath, Aganala. The trial run of the project has been successful. Now, the Helpline is ready for launching, he said.

A press statement said, two new Half-Way Homes with 25 seat capacity for Male and Female each would be opened at Narsingarh, Agartala within this month, he said, adding that the Homes would be used to accommodate the persons cured from tram mental illness who do not have homes or caretakers.

A process is underway to issue Unique ID Cards called Unique Disability Identity Cards (UDIDI to all the identified persons with disabilities so that they can avail different welfare schemes and other facilities of both state and central governments. 

According to the press release, 27,358 Unique IDs for the Persons with Disabilities have so far been generated. Besides, camps are being conducted at different blocks by the District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs) for identification and generation of UDID cards as per new categories of disabilities mentioned in the schedule of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

The Social Welfare and Social Education department, the additional director said, is currently implementing 31 state-sponsored pension schemes and three centrally-sponsored pension schemes, covering 3,89,439 beneficiaries. 

Among them, 1,58,197 beneficiaries are receiving the pensions under the central scheme and 2,31,242 are receiving the benefits under the state schemes. The figures included 15,371 pensioners from the PWD category, he said. During the last two years, the department has sanctioned pension for 33,085 new beneficiaries under MSAP and state-run social pension schemes. Besides, 10 Pradhan Samamatis are getting monthly pension of Rs 2000. 

The Department of Social Welfare and Social Education is currently running 40 Child Care Institutions in Tripura; 19 are government-run and the remaining 21 are run by the NGOs. The number of children accommodated in such homes is 887.

The state government has launched the "Tripura Policy for Empowerment of Women, 2022" for holistic empowerment of the women in the state. 

The major Initiatives and programmes prescribed in the policy included 33% women reservation in all state government jobs and outsourced manpower, reservation for women as per gender ratio in all higher educational institutions, 50% reservation for women in government market stalls and shopping complexes, setting up of 13 Women Health and Wellness Centres (WHWC) with Integrated One Stop Centres(OSCs), setting up of a 25-bedded Half-way home for recuperated mental health patients, setting up of at least three Old Age Homes for indigent women senior citizens and setting up of 4 new working women hostels.

Besides, for providing 24 hours immediate and emergency response to women affected by violence through referral and information about women-related government schemes, a women helpline number '181' has been set up in the state which is linked with ERSS-112.

Total 9911 Anganwadi Centres are presently functional in the state under 56 ICDS projects. Total enrolment of children in the age group six months to six years is 3,27,403. There are 56,218 enrolled pregnant and lactating mothers who are getting daily supplementary Nutrition under the scheme.

More 260 new Anganwadi Centres centres as approved by the state cabinet would come up in all eight districts including 45 for the Bru-resettlement sites in North, Dhalai and Gomati Districts. The New Centres is expected to fill up the gaps in AW Centres location in all the districts.