New Delhi: All participants in the on-going Enable Makeathon organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been assured of support by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE), Government of India. Shri Mukesh Jain, Joint Secretary of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, MSJE, gave this affirmation at a media interaction on the project held by the ICRC and its partners in New Delhi on Tuesday.

wp_ss_20151002_0001The Enable Makeathon is a 60-day programme by the end of which participants – including technology and design experts, persons with disabilities and mentors – would have developed solutions and products for persons with disabilities in the form of prototypes.

Shri Jain commended the organisation for initiating the Enable Makeathon, saying his Ministry wants “to engage with all the 138 entrants in the competition and connect them with those who can help develop their ideas.” He suggested that from these ideas could come solutions that could contribute to helping society diminish the three barriers (physical barriers, social barriers and psychological barriers) which hinder persons with disabilities from attaining their full potential.

Shri Mukesh Jain also spoke about the significance of ICRC's Enable Makeathon programme and the need to remove barriers that hinder persons with disabilities from attaining their full potential.

Shri Mukesh Jain spoke about the significance of the Enable Makeathon and the need to remove barriers that hinder persons with disabilities from attaining their full potential. ©ICRC, Ashish Bhatia

Earlier at the event, Robertangelo Ciccone, the ICRC’s Physical Rehabilitation Programme Manager explained the work of the ICRC with persons with disabilities around the world, while Nihal Kashinath of IoT Bangalore and Pavan Kumar of Workbench Projects—both partners of the ICRC, informed the media that at the end of the close of entries, as many as 138 participants had registered — 84 of which are from India.

Initiated by the ICRC along with its partners, this project is to help create new assistive devices for persons with disabilities living in rural areas across the world. It is motivated by the spirit of broad collaboration with the government, the private sector, the academia as well as other interested individuals.

It is being held onsite in Bengaluru, India, as well as online for participants from across the world. All participants will present the prototypes developed by them at a Demo Day event on January 23rd, 2016 in Bengaluru.