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National Association of the Deaf organized organ a seminar on “Empowerment of Deaf Women” at the Auditorium, Indian Social Institute, 10, Institutional Area, Lodi Road, New Delhi on Sunday, 25th March 2018. The deaf women are doubly disadvantaged first by disability and second with the added vulnerability of their gender. The event focused on raising awareness and creating a positive space in society for disability and women’s issues. There were about 100 deaf women and men participants.
The seminar started with the welcome note by Mrs. Geeta Sharma, NAD’s Women Secretary. The first session was taken by Ms. Angel Singha, Social Inclusion Officer, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who first gave an intro about ICRC, how it was established and its purpose. She explained the working of ICRC and the domains in which they deal from war torn areas to empowering people getting disabled in war.
The second session was quite interactive. It was moderated by Ms. Charu Narang, Trainer, CentumGRO, Mr. Amal Dev, Trainer, CentumGRO and Ms. Misha Narang, Teacher from Haryana. The participants were divided into groups. The moderators enacted different scenarios and the groups then had to discuss upon women’s issues ranging from menstruation, dowry, relationships, etc.
Mrs. Geeta Sharma took the last session where she mentioned about prominent disability rights advocate and leader Mr. Javed Abidi, his achivements with NCPEDP and journey from the PWD Act 1995 to the new law RPWD Act 2016. He was a major support to the deaf community. His shocking and untimely demise led to the postponement of the event from 8th March to 25th March 2018.
In her closing remarks she specially thanked SAIL, Syndicate Bank, LIC, Bank of Maharashtra & Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. who sponsored the event as well as thanked all participants and everyone went for high tea.