By IANS
New Delhi : A courier collection centre run by disabled Indian Army personnel was launched here Tuesday to help them become financially stable.
Anupama Singh, president of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), inaugurated the centre, being run in collaboration with leading courier company DTDC.
"The army has a large number of soldiers who suffer injuries and disabilities due to a variety of reasons while in service," an army spokesperson said.
"Ventures such as this courier centre aim at their economic rehabilitation as well as that of the kin of army personnel so challenged," he added.
According to the spokesperson, AWWA, that enjoys the support of the Indian Army and DTDC with its large national and international network, has "an edge over the others in providing the much-needed logistics and man-management support to such ventures".
"Such ventures also aim to 'Reach the Unreached' and establish a link between rehabilitation professionals with those in need," he added.
The Indian Army also runs various institutions for the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers.
Among these is the Queen Mary Technical Institute in Pune that conducts vocational training for disabled servicemen and their dependents.
The institute is funded out of grants from various government and non-government agencies, the adjutant general's branch at Army Headquarters and its own corpus fund.
There are also Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centres (PRC) at Kirkee near Pune and Mohali near Chandigarh with a capacity of 80 and 30 beds respectively. A vocational training centre has also been established near the Mohali home.
These are run as charitable trusts registered with the respective state governments.
This apart, the St. Dunstan's After Care Organisation at Dehradun provides rehabilitation, training, financial support and psychological support to serving personnel and ex-servicemen who have lost their sight.