awareness on disability rights’ ‘Creating Ask the group to make a list of stakeholders about 50-60 (given at the end of this exercise) at least for achieving the above objective. Ask the group to make a list of stakeholders from the village, taluka, district, State and national levels. There are different techniques to work with stakeholders who are directly and indirectly responsible. A few in the list generated will have direct responsibility in executing the implementation of rights of persons with disabilities. Some would be responsible for linking entitlements to persons with disabilities. Some would be more powerful in making and influencing the framing of policies and adopting suitable amendments to already available policies. There are different methods to approach each group of stakeholders to smooth the life of persons with disability to enjoy their rights at par with others in the society. The first group of stakeholders, at village level like village headmen, panchayat secretaries, teachers, health workers, etc., needs to be followed up regularly to meet the desired needs like medical certificate, identity card, pensions, transport concession, etc. Persons with disabilities or village-level DPOs need to build good relationships and communicate in such a manner so that the local service providers are not embarrassed. If the above mentioned service providers are not cooperative then, as a first step, discussions need to be held with them regarding the problem affecting the issue. Engage their participation by first talking to them and negotiate with them to solve the smaller issues. The second level of stakeholder groups is at the block and district levels. Involve block level and district level stakeholders in the programme and communicate with them the facts and figures as evidence to convince them to look into the needs and requests of persons with disabilities. This type of involvement with the block level and district level authorities helps to address any hurdles in getting the entitlement and provision meant for persons with disabilities. This means that the DPO should have full knowledge of the issue that they are presenting. The level of stakeholders has a more powerful influence or control in policy making and amendments to rules. To engage policy makers on disability or any particular development issues the DPO should seek the support from other similar groups and also build alliance with other community - based groups to present the issues to authorities at the State and national levels. To draw the attention of State-level authorities, DPOs need to network with other community-based groups at block level, district level and State level to influence the State-level authorities. Facilitator’s note:
‘Creating awareness on disability rights’ Ask the group to make a list of stakeholders about 50-60 (given at the end of this exercise) at least for achieving the above objective. Ask the group to make a list of stakeholders from the village, taluka, district, State and national levels. There are different techniques to work with stakeholders who are directly and indirectly responsible. A few in the list generated will have direct responsibility in executing the implementation of rights of persons with disabilities. Some would be responsible for linking entitlements to persons with disabilities. Some would be more powerful in making and influencing the framing of policies and adopting suitable amendments to already available policies. There are different methods to approach each group of stakeholders to smooth the life of persons with disability to enjoy their rights at par with others in the society. The first group of stakeholders, at village level like village headmen, panchayat secretaries, teachers, health workers, etc., needs to be followed up regularly to meet the desired needs like medical certificate, identity card, pensions, transport concession, etc. Persons with disabilities or village-level DPOs need to build good relationships and communicate in such a manner so that the local service providers are not embarrassed. If the above mentioned service providers are not cooperative then, as a first step, discussions need to be held with them regarding the problem affecting the issue. Engage their participation by first talking to them and negotiate with them to solve the smaller issues. The second level of stakeholder groups is at the block and district levels. Involve block level and district level stakeholders in the programme and communicate with them the facts and figures as evidence to convince them to look into the needs and requests of persons with disabilities. This type of involvement with the block level and district level authorities helps to address any hurdles in getting the entitlement and provision meant for persons with disabilities. This means that the DPO should have full knowledge of the issue that they are presenting. The level of stakeholders has a more powerful influence or control in policy making and amendments to rules. To engage policy makers on disability or any particular development issues the DPO should seek the support from other similar groups and also build alliance with other community - based groups to present the issues to authorities at the State and national levels. To draw the attention of State-level authorities, DPOs need to network with other community-based groups at block level, district level and State level to influence the State-level authorities. Facilitator’s note: