Every year since 1987, National Science Day is celebrated on February 28. On this day in 1928, C.V. Raman discovered the famous ‘Raman Effect’, about the scattering of light. He was awarded Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery in 1930. The day is commemorated to uphold the significance of scientific applications in our daily lives, to display all the activities, efforts and achievements in the field of science for human welfare and to inculcate scientific temper. Schools, colleges and universities throughout the country organise events and exhibitions that showcase their respective researches and discoveries in the field. National Science day was observed across Kashmir also with the Central University of Kashmir, University of Kashmir and Islamic University of Science and Technology holding functions and competitions.
Every year the day is assigned a theme. For 2017 the theme was "Science and Technology for Specially-abled Persons". A person is said to be specially-abled if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a significant impact on his or her daily life. This encompasses a wide range of impairments: from physical impairments like partial or total loss of sight, difficulty in hearing, inability to speak, various forms of immobility involving arms, legs or spine, to mental impairments like autism and dyslexia.
For the country where 2.21 % population is estimated to be specially-abled, the theme "Science & Technology for Specially-abled" for celebrating National Science Day is completely justified. Talking of J&K state, as per census 2011 our state has around 3.61 lakh, specially-abled persons. Another study places the number of disabled persons as high as 6 lakh out of which 1.2 lakh have some sort of orthopaedic disability and around 0.9 lakh suffer from mild to severe type of mental illness.
In today's world when science and technology have penetrated into every sphere of life, how can lives of specially-abled persons remain untouched? The severity of many of the impairments mentioned above can be reduced by technology. Innovations in technology can help the specially-abled person to lead an independent and near normal life.
In the area of prosthetics, for example, advances in material science, electronics and neuroscience have resulted in creation of prosthetic limbs that are controlled directly by the brain. From self-balancing and stair climbing wheelchairs to cars which replace driver seat with wheel chair, technology has promised it all. For visually impaired refreshable Braille displays, wearable finger reader for reading books, position sensing wrist bands with the capability of speech providing assistance in navigation, electric lollipop providing optical sensation enabling the user to taste the light and thousands of other products have come to the rescue of those who suffer visual impairment. A large number of assistive technologies including hearing aids, Cochlear implants are available for persons with hearing impairments.
Science may have done wonders and tonnes of gadgets and applications may be available for specially-abled people but we are still lacking and there is still a lot of scope in this area. If science and technology cannot provide relief to the specially-abled people then it is of little use. The fact is that it is not enough to innovate, design, produce and market the products for specially-abled, the products should be affordable to them as well, especially in Kashmir where the population of specially-abled particularly those with visual impairments has increased over the last year or so. It should be a matter of concern that research and innovation in this direction in our otherwise efficient educational and research institutes is negligible. The only possible reason for this neglect is a lack of sensitization towards the issues related to specially-abled people.
The roadmap to address the issues of specially-abled people starts with sensitising academia and industry by highlighting the never-ending scope in this area. Adequate funding needs to be made available for R&D. Making the latest gadgets and applications accessible and affordable is the step which is followed by providing education and training for specially-abled persons for which necessary infrastructure needs to be developed. Assistance in the placement and any entrepreneurial endeavour needs to be facilitated. Last but not the least, specially-abled friendly public amenities need to be created.
Every year the day is assigned a theme. For 2017 the theme was "Science and Technology for Specially-abled Persons". A person is said to be specially-abled if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a significant impact on his or her daily life. This encompasses a wide range of impairments: from physical impairments like partial or total loss of sight, difficulty in hearing, inability to speak, various forms of immobility involving arms, legs or spine, to mental impairments like autism and dyslexia.
For the country where 2.21 % population is estimated to be specially-abled, the theme "Science & Technology for Specially-abled" for celebrating National Science Day is completely justified. Talking of J&K state, as per census 2011 our state has around 3.61 lakh, specially-abled persons. Another study places the number of disabled persons as high as 6 lakh out of which 1.2 lakh have some sort of orthopaedic disability and around 0.9 lakh suffer from mild to severe type of mental illness.
In today's world when science and technology have penetrated into every sphere of life, how can lives of specially-abled persons remain untouched? The severity of many of the impairments mentioned above can be reduced by technology. Innovations in technology can help the specially-abled person to lead an independent and near normal life.
In the area of prosthetics, for example, advances in material science, electronics and neuroscience have resulted in creation of prosthetic limbs that are controlled directly by the brain. From self-balancing and stair climbing wheelchairs to cars which replace driver seat with wheel chair, technology has promised it all. For visually impaired refreshable Braille displays, wearable finger reader for reading books, position sensing wrist bands with the capability of speech providing assistance in navigation, electric lollipop providing optical sensation enabling the user to taste the light and thousands of other products have come to the rescue of those who suffer visual impairment. A large number of assistive technologies including hearing aids, Cochlear implants are available for persons with hearing impairments.
Science may have done wonders and tonnes of gadgets and applications may be available for specially-abled people but we are still lacking and there is still a lot of scope in this area. If science and technology cannot provide relief to the specially-abled people then it is of little use. The fact is that it is not enough to innovate, design, produce and market the products for specially-abled, the products should be affordable to them as well, especially in Kashmir where the population of specially-abled particularly those with visual impairments has increased over the last year or so. It should be a matter of concern that research and innovation in this direction in our otherwise efficient educational and research institutes is negligible. The only possible reason for this neglect is a lack of sensitization towards the issues related to specially-abled people.
The roadmap to address the issues of specially-abled people starts with sensitising academia and industry by highlighting the never-ending scope in this area. Adequate funding needs to be made available for R&D. Making the latest gadgets and applications accessible and affordable is the step which is followed by providing education and training for specially-abled persons for which necessary infrastructure needs to be developed. Assistance in the placement and any entrepreneurial endeavour needs to be facilitated. Last but not the least, specially-abled friendly public amenities need to be created.
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