Speakers at an interface meeting on Sunday stressed on inclusion of disabled people in the selection process of beneficiaries in the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) programme at union levels.
They viewed this at the interface meeting titled ‘VGD affairs community score card’ organised by Rangdhanu District Protibondhi Adhikar Sangstha (RDPAS), Rangpur at Gopalpur union parishad hall room in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur district.
Access Bangladesh Foundation and Commonwealth Foundation extended assistance in arranging the event participated by 60 people, including Members and Secretary of Gopalpur union parishad, civil society members, disabled people and local elite.
Gopalpur union parishad Chairman Md Azizur Rahman attended the event as the chief guest with President of RDPAS Md Rabiul Islam in the chair.
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General Secretary of RDPAS Md Hasanur Rahman (Helal) moderated the event.
Community Organiser of RDPAS Md Atiar Rahman delivered a keynote essay narrating statistics and social status of disabled population and negligible number of VGD beneficiaries among them in Gopalpur union.
The speakers proposed involving representatives of the disabled population in the selection process of VGD beneficiaries to bring more women with disabilities under the programme for their inclusive development.
The chief guest lauded the government for taking many steps like VDG, allowances, training and other programmes for disabled people to turn them into productive human resources for their mainstreaming to attain the SDGs.
He expressed commitment to involve representatives of the physically challenged and intellectually retarded people in the process of selecting VGD beneficiaries and implement more development activities for disabled people.
“We will bring all disabled people of Gopalpur union under the massive social safety net programmes of the government and provide them training for their engagement with income generating activities to achieve self-reliance,” he said.
