“Empowering Women with Disabilities: Amity Mumbai’s CRE Program Raises Awareness and Inspires Change”
The Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences (AIBAS) Department of Clinical Psychology recently organized a Continuing Rehabilitation Education (CRE) Program. This one-day event, titled “Sensitization of Women with Disabilities,” received approval from the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI).
The main objective of this CRE Program was to raise awareness of the challenges faced by women with disabilities during their rehabilitation journey. The program focused on issues such as social discrimination, marginalization, and rejection experienced by these women.
The CRE Program was conducted online at the Zonal Level and saw participation from 119 individuals who held RCI Registered CRR Numbers and were aged 50 and above. Participants joined from various regions, including Delhi, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, and West Bengal.
In his inaugural address, Prof. Dr. A. W. Santosh Kumar,Vice Chancellor of Amity University, Mumbai, stressed the importance of recognizing the abilities of people with disabilities rather than their disabilities. He emphasized that people with disabilities have unique abilities and stressed the responsibility of rehabilitation professionals to sensitize society about the well-being and awareness of women with disabilities.
Dr. Gautam Gawali, Professor and Director of AIBAS, highlighted the crucial role of rehabilitation professionals in raising awareness about the psychosocial challenges faced by women with disabilities in his welcome address.
The CRE Program featured several resource persons. Mr. Dashrath Choudhari, the Head of the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology at NIEPID, Secunderabad, discussed “Psycho-Social Issues of Women with Disability” and provided insights into various rehabilitation perspectives. Ms. Jyoti Kamble, the PDCP Coordinator of the Department of Clinical Psychology at AIBAS, focused on mental health issues affecting women with disabilities and recommended psychosocial interventions.
Dr. Sitanshu Kumar, the founder and director of Shaswat Jigyasa, Lucknow, focused on the concept of “Capability Only” and sensitized the participants to this idea. Jankeedevi Vaishnav, lecturer at the B. M. Institute of Mental Health, Ahmedabad, explained the importance of vocational rehabilitation for women with disabilities and how economic independence can positively impact their social and mental well-being.