President Kovind to confer National Awards for outstanding work towards empowerment of persons with disabilities today

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New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind will be the Chief Guest at a ceremony to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities organized by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Friday (December 3, 2021).

President Kovind will confer the annual National Awards on individuals, institutions, organizations and state/district, etc for their outstanding achievements and work towards the empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), said the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in a release. 

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr Virendra Kumar will preside over the function, while Union Ministers of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale, A Narayanaswamy and Pratima Bhoumik will also grace the occasion.

On the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities i.e. December 3, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment confers National Awards on Individuals, Institutions, Organizations, State/District etc for their outstanding achievements and work done towards empowerment of Persons with Disabilities every year.

Till 2017, the Award Scheme was governed under the National Awards Rules, 2013 which provided 7 categories of disabilities as per the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995. However, with the coming into force of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 w.e.f. April 19, 2017, the number of specified disabilities increased from 7 to 21 under the new Law. Accordingly, all the 21 disabilities have been included under the National Award Guidelines which have been notified in the Extraordinary Gazette of India dated August 2, 2018.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) wrote to the State Governments/Union Territory Administrators and Central Ministries/Departments calling nominations for National Awards in various categories. Advertisement is also published in the national/regional language daily newspapers to give wide publicity of the Awards. The detailed scheme of National Awards as also the advertisement issued for calling applications is displayed in the website of the Department in a downloadable format.