Docs trained to give disability certificates

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 10

In order to review the guidelines for evaluation of various disabilities and procedures for certification, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and the Health Department conducted a special training camp for the doctors in the area.

In the first-of its-kind camp in the state, the doctors were given training to certify 21 types of disabilities and give disability certificate, an important document for the Persons with Disability (PwD).

All medical officers (MO) need special training to evaluate these disabilities, after the amendment in the Rights of Persons with Disability Act. After the amendment, the number of types of disabilities has been increased from seven to 21. As per the 1995 version of the Act, only seven disabilities were included, however, in 2016, a change was made to include many more.

Now, persons affected with blindness, low-vision, hearing impairment (deaf or hard of hearing), locomotor disability, dwarfism, intellectual disability, mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, chronic neurological conditions, specific learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis, speech and language disability, thalassemia, hemophilia, sickle cell disease, acid attack victim, leprosy cured persons and deaf-blindness are covered under the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, said Dr Raj Bahadur, vice chancellor of BFUHS, while addressing the doctors in the workshop.

Dr Raj Bahadur said according to an estimate, about 2.21 per cent of the total population in the country has some form of disability and there is a need to provide means to ‘include’ them meaningfully into society. 

Dr Sanjay Wadhwa from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, said the government was working towards this through a variety of laws and schemes. Keeping this in mind, the disability certificate becomes an important document for the PWD.

Disability is not just a health problem. It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives, he added.

Doctors need to handle these persons with love and care, when the latter approaches them for certification. Disability is an impairment, activity limitation and participation restriction, so they need special attention, Dr Raj Bahadur added. 

Disability certificate is a document that allows an individual with a disability to avail benefits and facilities that they are rightfully entitled to, by the Central and state government bodies. However, due to lack of knowledge, some medical officers face problem in giving the disability certificate. So the training camp is aimed at making them more acquaint with the amendment and its implementation.