DEPwD, EDII Ahmedabad with corporates to empower 3,000 PwDs under CSR

NEW DELHI: The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), partnered with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), ministry of social justice and empowerment, government of India, organised a roundtable meeting for corporates to ‘Support, Activate and Build Assured Livelihoods (SABAL) for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) under CSR Actions'.

The round table discussion included topics related to accessibility, aids, assistive devices, AI for PwDs, Job mapping, entrepreneurship opportunities, and disability sensitization.

Rajesh Aggarwal, IAS secretary DEPwD; Sunil Shukla, director general, EDII; Raman Gujral, director, department of projects (Corporate) at EDII, as well as senior officials from DEPwD and CSR leaders from leading corporate entities, attended the meet.

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The ‘Meet’ aimed at sensitising society on creating a better world for PwDs through combined efforts of the government, corporates, and institutions. The guests also discussed the establishment of 3,000 new enterprises PwDs, including 1,500 technology-driven and 1,500 general enterprises.

As per the institute, the discussions on ensuring the empowerment of PwDs through sustainable enterprise creation and creating best practices in infrastructure, perception, environment, security, and other facilities to promote their complete inclusion in society were also done.

A video was screened explaining the features of the newly launched DEPwD PM Daksh portal for skilling and employment of Divyangjan.

Key highlights of the event

Some of the activities identified to achieve the goal of creating 3000 PwD-led enterprises include.

• Awareness Campaign to Ensure Community Integration of PwDs

• Immersive Life Skills for Adolescents with Disabilities

• Sourcing Business Opportunities for PwDs

• Sensitization workshops for PwDs

• Credit Linkage Support

• Entrepreneur Growth-cum-Counselling Programme (EGCP) to Support PwD-led Enterprises Micro Skillpreneurship Development Programme (MSDP) to enable unemployed PwDs to set up their business.

Secretary, DEPwD Rajesh Aggarwal opened up the conversation for supporting Divyangjan through various initiatives including “ donations through CSRs in providing aids and assistive devices, upskilling, providing loans and mentorship to PwDs, mapping of jobs following the 'coolability factor', providing reasonable accommodation, providing leaves for health issues and spreading the message across distribution networks of the companies and hiring PwDs.”

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Kishor B Surwade, deputy director general DEPwD spoke about various initiatives and schemes of the department including the National Action Plan for Skill Development of Pwds, assistive devices, scholarship to Divyangjan, and rehabilitation services.

Raman Gujral, discussing the various projects undertaken by corporates to empower PwDs, said, “ EDII has so far trained 8,533 PwDs through 266 skill training programmes, leading to the establishment of 1,247 enterprises. EDII houses the Centre for Empowerment of the Differently Abled (CEDA), supported by the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment, Directorate of Social Defence, Gujarat State Handicapped (Divyang) Finance & Development Corporation, Government of Gujarat, on its campus.”

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