A Jammu girl, advocate Ritika Sharma who is helping the specially abled people is an inspirational story in itself.
Working in the Red Cross as a volunteer inspired a Law student of the University of Jammu to start a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) to help the specially abled people in Jammu. Pursuing her P.hD from the Department of Law, Ritika since a long time participated in social work including blood donation camps.
“I used to participate in many activities of Red Cross Society along with blood donation camps and gradually I realised that a major section of the society is deprived from all the facilities and help available around them, majorly because of non awareness and societal stigma around their condition. Hence i decided to work for the specially abled people who were hardly getting any help. This thinking has led to the foundation of the NGO which has six members/office bearers,” Ritika said.
A young social activist started organising programmes and getting details of the government welfare schemes for the specially abled persons following which she started to help the needy people.
“I remember a 70-year old man was not able to get a tricycle despite government schemes having provisions. Our organisation helped him to get the tricycle so that he could work and feed his family,” she says.
She further says that, “We have seen many of the cases which require government help but there was no one to guide them or help them to address their issues. This gap is widening and we are trying to bridge this gap by helping these people.”
She tells that, “Our NGO has taken initiatives to help the specially abled in their marriage and health related initiatives like cancer, kidney, hemophilia and epilepsy patients.”
“These specially abled people mostly remain unaware about the schemes of the government and majority of them have been ignored,” she adds while saying that her NGO wanted to address the routine suffering of the people.
She however expresses her concern that the government departments have also failed to reach these specially abled people and this has added to more problems although some of the welfare schemes have been started by the government.
