Temsutola Jamir of Nagaland received National Award for Persons with Disabilities (Hearing Impaired – Female) from Droupadi Murmu, the President of India, at a function held at New Delhi today on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Jamir is a member and school alumna of Deaf Biblical Ministry, Dimapur, a school for deaf children.
The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment gives away the awards every year to individuals, institutions, organizations, state/district etc for their outstanding achievements and work done towards empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
After conferring the awards for 2021 and 2022, the President in her address said that it everybody’s responsibility to ensure that the persons with disabilities can lead a dignified life independently. It is also our duty to ensure that they get a good education, stay safe in their homes and society, have the freedom to choose their career and have equal employment opportunities.
The President also said that the Indian culture and tradition has often seen Divyangjan as being gifted with divine qualities. There are innumerable examples in which our Divyang brothers and sisters have achieved impressive feats in many fields on the strength of their indomitable courage, talent and determination, she said.
Further she said that education is the key to the empowerment of every individual, including persons with disabilities. She stressed for the maximum use of technology in order to remove language related barriers in education and to make education more accessible to children with disabilities.
The President of India, lauding the conversion of NCERT text books for classes I to VI into Indian Sign Language for hearing-impaired children, said that it is an important initiative to include hearing-impaired students in the mainstream education process.
The President people with disabilities have talents and abilities just like normal people, and sometimes more than them and to make them self-reliant, it is only necessary to instil in them self-confidence.
She urged all sections of the society to motivate the Divyangjan to become self-reliant and move ahead in life.
