KARACHI, May 26 Sindh Minister for Social Welfare Nargis N.D. Khan told the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday that 13 institutions in Sindh were rendering services to the needy, deserving and downtrodden masses under the social welfare department in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas.

She stated this in her written reply to the question of Ms Husna Aftab during the Sindh Assembly's question hour. However, some supplementary questions were answered by Irrigation Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah since Ms Khan was in Islamabad.

Through the written reply she gave details of the name and number of the institutes and their estimated expenditure.

The Women Welfare Centres were also working in each district of Sindh on a self-help basis and the socio economic centres had been transferred to the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA) through a 2009 notification, she stated.

Replying to another question of the same member, the minister said that no fund was allocated for establishing Darul Aman in any district during the last financial year. However four such facilities had been working in the Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana districts. Another Darul Aman would be established in Shaheed Benazirabad, she added.

Destitute and under-privileged women were being provided shelters, rehabilitation and training in home management and different skills at the Darul Aman so that they might be able to live in a respectable manner in society and could play their due role, she stated.

She stated that all Darul Aman facilities in Sindh were now working under the administrative control of their respective district governments.

After the promulgation of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001, all institutions and field offices of the social welfare department had been devolved and all Darul Aman facilities were given under the administrative control of the respective district governments, which were responsible for their maintenance, she elaborated.

Answering a question of Ms Naheed Begum, she stated that 17 centres had been established and functioning in Sindh for the rehabilitation of disabled persons. Of them, five centres were working under the name of “Rehabilitation Centre for Physically Handicapped”, while 12 centres were working under the title of “Rehabilitation Centre for Multiple Handicapped Children”.

She said that according to the available record no appointment had been made during the current year in the social welfare department. She said that a two per cent quota for disabled persons and a 20 per cent quota for women would be followed at the time of appointment.

Replying to a question of Heer Ismail Soho, she said it is a fact that no specific syllabus had been made for disabled persons in the institution but the Board of Secondary Education and Board of Higher Secondary Education syllabi are being followed by the rehabilitation centres concerned.

She stated that 60 NGOs are registered with the social welfare department under the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance, 1961 and working for special (Disable) persons.—APP