Organised by the Odisha SSEPD Department, on the eve of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the workshop had a thorough discussion on the theme of this year’s celebration. It was expressed that given the multiple challenges we are facing today, the world is not on track to reach many SDG targets according to the preliminary findings from the UN Disability and Development Report 2023. Thus united efforts of Governments, NGOs, Social Engineers, Corporate Bodies and Civil Society have become necessary to have more visible socio-economic growth of PwDs.

The speakers discussed many aspects of SDG targets in Odisha such as the co-relation between UN Vision and SDGs, digital empowerment of PwDs, education and skill development and livelihood, new technology for education and training, norms and standards of model behaviour and social adequate towards PwDs, monitoring the off-tracking of SDGs, transformative solutions against the mix and misconception towards PwDs, disability accessibility, excellence in sports, barrier-free school, involvement of PwDs in disaster risk reduction and multiple crises faced by PwDs in their day to day life. It was also suggested to have an integrated sports complex for PwDs, a call centre, a database for job-seekers, and strengthening of empowerment activities from the grassroots level in Odisha.

Dr. N.C.Pati and Sannyasi Behera chaired two sessions respectively while Jagadananda, Member, Standing Committee of NITI Ayoga, Dr Pratap Rath, Psychologist, Former Administrator R.K. Sharma, Soubhagya Routray, Siba Prasad Behera, Rajiv Raturi, Mohit Kejriwal, Bijay Routray, Md. Jafer Ekbal, Dilip Roy, Special Secretary of the Deptt. and others participated. Deepak Routray proposed a vote of thanks.