New Years comes with smiles of hearing and speech impaired tiny tots

Bhopal: The New Year came with smiles of hearing and speech impaired, disabled and mentally retarded small children at Bhopal Haat here today. Premises of Bhopal Haat was overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of hundreds of lively children in colourful attires. The Social Justice and Disabled Welfare Department has organised a 3-day Sparsh Mela here from January 2 to 4. Apart from the state capital, children from Indore and Ujjain divisions and other regions will also participate in it. It is the 2nd year of Sparsh Mela. For the first time, a leadership and personality development camp for disabled children has also been organised here.

Additional Chief Secretary Panchayats & Rural Development Smt. Aruna Sharma inaugurated Sparsh Mela by lighting a lamp here this evening. She hoped that disabled children will meet with success in various spheres of life by imbibing better education and training. She said that these children have the guts to touch sky should they desire. Smt. Sharma said that the state government has made large scale arrangements for disabled children’s education, treatment apart from providing them necessary resources and equipments to them so that they can lead a life better then common people. She said that special kits are provided to disabled children in schools. Besides, the state government has also decided to provide laptops to disabled children passing high school exam with good marks. Smt. Sharma said that software useful for disabled children have also been displayed at Sparsh Mela. These will be provided free to them as per their requirements by the state government.

Earlier, Secretary and Commissioner Social Justice Shri V.K. Batham threw light on features of Sparsh Mela. He informed that a leadership and personality development camp will be held here for meritorious disabled children where they will be provided career-related counseling. Besides, best performers in cultural programmes during the 3-day event will be selected to perform during national programme to be held by the Union Government in New Delhi on January 13-14. Commissioner Disabled Welfare Shri Jaideep Singh Maini and other guests also spoke on the occasion and extended best wishes to disabled children. Jhabua district collector Smt. Jaishree Kiyawat, Punjab National Bank’s Bhopal Region Head Shri S.K. Zutshi and Bank of India’s Regional Deputy General Manager Shri A.K. Shukla were also present. Disabled children also presented colourful cultural programmes on the occasion.