260 people provided artificial legs in 8 hrs a new Guinness world record for disabilies dept: Thaawar Chand Gehlot

Union Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot on Friday said the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) has set its seventh Guinness world record with 260 people in Gujarat's Bharuch getting 'Modern Artificial Limbs (Legs)' implanted within eight hours.

The DEPwD under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had previously set six Guinness world records in other categories. This new record was set on Thursday.

"It is a very proud moment for the DEPwD as well as for all divyangjans (people with disabilities) of our country," Gehlot said at the inauguration of a national conference on Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS).

About 600 delegates from across the country participated in the conference.

The DEPwD had earlier organized regional conferences in Secunderabad on December 22, Mumbai on January 17 and Kolkata on February 18.

The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment expressed happiness that the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center (ISLRTC) under the DEPwD has recently prepared a dictionary comprising 6,000 words for the hearing impaired and that more than 1,700 visually impaired children have been treated with cochlear implant surgery.

The DEPwD has also provided 'motorized tricycles' to the physically challenged across the country.

Gehlot said that so far, 28 states have provided universal ID cards to around 13 lakh differently abled people.

-PTI