ALT Shireen, in a white dress sitting in her wheelchair, smiling gently at the camera. A white shawl with a red and green border is on her shoulder. The background is blue, and the text says CONVOCATION, IISER Kolkata.

ALT Professor Prasanta K. Panigrahi, an excellent physicist and Director of IISER Kolkata handed over a degree certificate to Shireen on a stage with a blue carpet.

ALT TOI news screenshot. Lin in the tweet

ALT In the Budget Speech 2024-25, PwDswere not mentioned once. Even though one of the nine budget priorities was: Inclusive Human Resource Development and Social Justice. The absence of Person with Disabilities from this social justice dents the promise of inclusive growth towards Viksit Bharat 2047. A developed India without catering to its 7-8% of its population will only cause marginalisation of this minority. The adoption of saturation approach for catering to the education and health of ALL doesn't mention PwDs who are one of the most backward sections in both these aspects with less than 5% of PwD able to do higher education. The Budget allocation for the Department of the Empowerment of Person with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is merely Rs 1225.27 Crores which is roughly 0.025% of the total budget (Rs 48 Lakhs Crores). Last year the allocation for the DoEPWD was allocated Rs 1225.15 Crores, thus there is an increase of just 12 Lakhs this year.