Kathmandu, January 13:

With a view to uplifting the disabled people, the Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare has endorsed five per cent quota reservation for the disabled in the civil service.

State Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Dr Durga Pokharel, informed this at an interaction programme organised here by the National Disabled Federation yesterday, saying that 20 per cent quota in the service has been reserved for women while 10 per cent each quota has been set aside for dalits and Indigenous groups respectively.

Noting that the disabled, women, children and elderly people should not be viewed as burden, Pokharel further added that a national policy will be formulated for the disabled with a view to giving them necessary facilities from the state as soon as statistics on population of genuine disabled are made available.

General Secretary of National Disabled Federation, Nepal, said that he had gained knowledge about capacity building of the disabled, project formulation for the disabled, the transparency and sustainability of such projects from his recent visit to Denmark in connection of his four-month long study tour titled “Democracy and the rights of disabled”.

He also observed that the disabled in Nepal have not been able to enjoy the facilities they are entitled to because of lack of transparency in every sector.

Secretary of the organisation, Mitra Lal Sharma, chaired the programme.