People with Disabilities
Definition & data:
Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions.
- An impairment is a problem in body function or structure;
- An activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action;
- A participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.
- As per Census 2011, in India, out of the total population of 121 crores, about 2.68 Cr persons are ‘Disabled’ (2.21% of the total population), Out of 2.68 crores, 1.5 crores are males and 1.18 crore are females, Majority (69%) of the disabled population resided in rural areas.
Highlights of Draft National Policy for Persons with Disabilities:
• According to the draft policy, the current national program on the prevention of disabilities focused on “traditional causes”, but there were other causes of disability, such as malnourishment, medical negligence, socio-cultural factors, and impairment caused by disasters.
• The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD) Act, 2016 expanded the number of disabilities from 7 to 21. However, the issue of disability remained un-resolved on the majority of the issues.
• The draft policy called for a comprehensive national program for the prevention of disabilities and other medical conditions that could manifest as a disability.
• The draft stated that one-third of most disabilities in children were preventable if detected early.
• The draft policy also said the States and Union Territories should add a provision in compliance with the RPD Act when granting permission or recognition to educational institutions.
• Besides, a module on disability should be included in MBBS and other medical courses for a better understanding of the issue.
• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will be directed to issue necessary guidelines for making modifications in the personal vehicles being used by persons with disabilities as per requirement.
• Revision of the policy was required as the existing national policy on disability was drafted in 2006, after which India signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007.
Issues faced by persons with disabilities:
Health: A large number of disabilities are preventable, including those arising from medical issues during birth, maternal conditions, malnutrition, as well as accidents, and injuries. However, the health sector especially in rural India has failed to react proactively to disability. Further, there is a lack of affordable access to proper health care, aids, and appliances. Healthcare facilities and poorly trained health workers in rehabilitation centers are another concern.
Education: The education system is not inclusive. Inclusion of children with mild to moderate disabilities in regular schools has remained a major challenge. There are various issues such as availability of special schools, access to schools, trained teachers, and availability of educational materials for the disabled. Further, reservations for the disabled in higher educational institutions have not been fulfilled in many instances.
Employment: Even though many disabled adults are capable of productive work, disabled adults have far lower employment rates than the general population. The situation is even worse in the private sector, where much fewer disabled are employed
Accessibility: Physical accessibility in buildings, transportation, access to services, etc still remains a significant challenge.
Discrimination/Social Exclusion: Negative attitudes held by the families of the disabled, and often the disabled themselves, hinder disabled persons from taking an active part in the family, community, or workforce. Differently-abled people face discrimination in everyday life. People suffering from mental illness or mental retardation face the worst stigma and are subject to severe social exclusion.
- The Supreme Court remarked in Patan Jamal Wali vs. State of Andhra Pradesh that women with disabilities are frequently considered “soft targets” and “easy victims” of sexual violence.
Inadequate data and statistics: The lack of rigorous and comparable data and statics further hinder the inclusion of persons with disabilities. The major issues with the collection of data and measuring disability are,
- Difficult to define disability
- Coverage: Different purposes require different disability data, Reluctance in reporting disability as disability is considered to be a stigma in many places/societies.
- Poor implementation of policies and schemes hinders the inclusion of disabled persons. Through various acts and schemes that have been laid down to empower the disabled, their enforcement faces many challenges.
International/Domestic Commitments and initiatives towards persons with disabilities:
• United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
• Incheon Strategy for Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022 (“Incheon commitment”).
• Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
Constitutional Frameworks & Legislations for Disabled:
1. Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) states that State shall make effective provisions for securing the right to work, education, and public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness, and disablement, within the limits of its economic capacity and development. The subject of ‘relief of the disabled and unemployable’ is specified in the state list of the Seventh Schedule of the constitution.
2. Right of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016:
Programs/initiatives for the Disabled in India:
1. Accessible India Campaign: Creation of Accessible Environment for PwDs a nationwide flagship campaign for achieving universal accessibility that will enable persons with disabilities to gain access to equal opportunity and live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life in an inclusive society.The campaign targets at enhancing the accessibility of the built environment, transport system, and Information & communication ecosystem.
2. DeenDayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme: Under the scheme financial assistance is provided to NGOs for providing various services to Persons with Disabilities, like special schools, vocational training centers, community-based rehabilitation, pre-school and early intervention, etc
3. Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase / Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP): The Scheme aims at helping disabled persons by bringing suitable, durable, scientifically-manufactured, modern, standard aids and appliances within their reach.
4. National Fellowship for Students with Disabilities (RGMF): The scheme aims to increase opportunities for students with disabilities for pursuing higher education. Under the Scheme, 200 Fellowships per year are granted to students with disability.
5. Schemes of the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation, and Multiple Disabilities have also been implemented.
My Opinion:
Firstly, Our commitment to the changing discourse around disability has to change. We need to be committed to the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities by providing a mechanism that ensures their full participation in society. When the commitments become law, they will be a tremendous step forward in making our law enforcement system more accessible to the disabled. Strengthening the laws further by adding proposals from well-thought-out public comments would get us closer to our goal of guaranteeing our handicapped residents receive the policy protection they deserve. We need to understand that access is not just a “social responsibility” of society towards the “differently-abled,” this contradicts the rights-based understanding of disability. This is inaccurate since access is a legal right that is granted to disabled people as empowered citizens. Our Preventive health programs need to be strengthened and all children need to be screened at a young age. For example, Kerala has already started an early prevention program. Comprehensive Newborn Screening (CNS) program that seeks early identification of deficits in infants and reduces the state's burden of disability. People with disabilities need to be better integrated into society by overcoming stigma. There should be awareness campaigns to educate people about different kinds of disabilities, Success stories of people with disabilities can be showcased to inculcate a positive attitude among people. Disabled adults need to be empowered with employable skills, also The private sector needs to be encouraged to employ them. The scale of disability in India needs to be better understood by improving the measurement of disability. State-wise strategies for education for children with special needs need to be devised. There should be proper teacher training to address the needs of differently-abled children and facilitate their inclusion in regular schools, Further, there should be more special schools and ensure educational material for differently-abled children. Safety measures like road safety, safety in residential areas, public transport system, etc, should be taken up, and it should be made legally binding to make buildings disabled-friendly. More budgetary allocation for the welfare of the disabled is the need of the hour. There should be a disability budgeting line for the gender budget. Proper implementation of schemes should be ensured. There should be proper monitoring mechanisms and accountability of public funds. In Politics, there should be a framework for political parties to ‘conduct a meaningful outreach to persons with disabilities when creating election campaign strategies and developing policy positions. The inclusion of civil societies to ‘conduct domestic election observation or voter education campaigns like Chhattisgarh has started the initiative of nominating at least one disabled person in each panchayat. Finally, To address this growing fissure between the accessible and non-accessible world, We will have to close some of the gaps and blunt some of the edges by building accessibility across all sectors so that we can engage meaningfully with "Persons with disabilities".
