Composite Rehabilitation Centre (CRC), Bemina, the lone centre for the rehabilitation of physically challenged patients is struggling for a permanent administrative head since the establishment of the Centre in 2000. The non-availability of the administrative head is taking a serious toll on the overall development of the Centre.
CRC was established for the Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities of Jammu and Kashmir State, by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, under the Persons with Disabilities Act (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and full participation) in the Year 2000.
Sources said that due to the absence of a permanent administrator, centres’ efficiency and working is getting affected badly.
Currently, the administrator who is performing his additional duty at the centre is also holding the position of Director Social Welfare Department as well. Due to additional charge, the Director In charge is not able to give the required time to the matters pertaining to the centre, sources said.
Numerous administrative heads posted at the Centre are lacking the basic requirement of belonging to the medical background, contrary to what is the practice being followed at several other centres.
“Since the inception, at least 13 administrative heads have been posted as Director In charge’s of the centre, and most of them were not having the required medical background to understand the nitty-gritty of centres like that of CRC, Bemina,” sources said.
“The additional charge menace is seriously taking toll on the functioning of the Centre, marring any scope for its further up-gradation,” sources added.
What is more bizarre about CRC, Bemina is that due to the scarcity of permanent faculty, the centre—which is also running few academic courses as well—is forced to hire faculty from different hospitals in order to assist the centre in completing the syllabus for some courses.
“There are certain courses where the faculty is available at the centre, however, there are certain courses where the centre is forced to hire the outside faculty to complete the syllabus,” sources said, adding that the centre is left in lurch when the outside faculty refuses to come to deliver lectures due to their pre-occupations.
Notably, the physical care and rehabilitation setup in the state seems not to be in a condition where it could very well cater to the needs of physically challenged patients, who are usually asked to move out of state for specialized treatment.
“During 2016 unrest there have been cases where there have been serious Spinal Cord injuries, and the patients were rendered motionless.” sources said.
The scenario given is raising serious questions on overall system in place for the rehabilitation and treatment of physically challenged patients in Kashmir, where according to Census-2011 there is a total number of 361153 people with different types of disabilities in the state, and 262354 households having disabled persons.
Experts are saying that such cases should have been treated at such centres, but what is being witnessed is that such patients usually prefer to move out of state for the treatment, given the poor functioning of rehabilitation centres.
![](https://i0.wp.com/kashmirreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/guest-writer.jpg?resize=100%2C100&ssl=1)