The National Adoption Year of the Disabled programme will seek support from the public and corporates in four ways. `Adopt a Disabled' person for life scheme provides for adopting a disabled person by an individual, who sponsors him to a workshop that will permanently rehabilitate him. `Adopt a Workshop' provides for sponsoring an entire workshop that aims to rehabilitate 100 disabled persons. `Work for the Disabled' scheme promotes contract jobs and procurement of orders for items and services that can be manufactured and provided by the disabled, and through donations in kind.

Ms Arini Ghosh, coordinator, says disabled persons will be trained and employed in activities such as manufacture of stationery items and readymade garments, assembly of electronic items and services such as computer cleaning, and telephone cleaning. A list of 35 trades and services, which can be provided by the disabled has been finalised.

The Tata Group has already pledged support to the cause and has sponsored four such workshops over the recent past. In addition, it has pledged professional support and services to help establish this effort. The Godrej group has also pledged support to NADE.

NADE was established in 1987 in Mumbai as a non-governmental charitable trust. More than an organisation, NADE claims to be a holistic vision of turning the disabled `consumers' of our society into `producers' and proud `contributors' to the national income. This is done through providing training, employment and professional support to the disabled to set up and run their cooperatives and industries.

The founder of NADE, Mr K N Radhakrishnan Nair, has been in active voluntary service for the disabled since 1972. Says he: ``I actively associated myself with the first `Workers Cooperative' of the blind in Asia, as its honorary secretary, which was organised with a membership of around 150 unemployed blind persons at Vikhroli, Mumbai in 1972. With the help of the Maharashtra Rajya Sahakari Sangh, District Cooperative Boards and Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperation Managament, Pune, the `Disabled's Cooperative Movement' started spreading throughout the country." As a result, over 50 cooperatives for the disabled having a membership of over 10,000 persons have been established in Maharashtra alone.

The disabled cooperatives undertake various types of production, servicing and trading activities to provide employment and other welfare services to their disabled members. Over the years, it was realised that if the cooperative movement of the disabled has to become successful in our country, the members of these cooperatives will be required to be given continuous education, training as well as professional support to prepare them to set up, run and develop more such cooperative business enterprises.

As part of its endeavour, NADE has a training centre-cum-workshop at Vikhroli, Mumbai, for the blind, deaf, mentally and orthopaedically handicapped. Depending on the kind of disability, the members are specially trained and provided permanent employment through disabled cooperatives in service contracts like printing and book binding, tailoring, assembly of mechanical, electrical, electronic and plastic components, packing, finishing, manufacturing stationery, service jobs like cleaning of computers, telephones and fax and photocopier machines and various other jobs. Thereafter, they are shifted to cooperatives for the disabled where they are permanently settled.