Transcript Slide 1

Vaishali Kolhe, Center for Disability Studies and Action, Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
RESTRUCTURING THE NEW
LEGISLATION FOR PERSON WITH
DISABILITIES BY IMPLEMENTING
THE UNCRPD FRAMEWORK: IN
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
EDUCATION FOR ALL, WARSAW
29JUNE-1JULY 2011
population
 Disability means differences
 Its matter of degree of out casting, exclusion based on
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the mindset/ ideology of a particular society
Disability is a result of interaction of a person’s impairment
with the environment, leading to barriers
………….structural, social ,psychological, mental, physical
10 % ,650 million of world population live with one or other
category of disabiliy (UN 2006)
Majority 80% live in developing country with conditions of
poverty(world bank 2005, UN 2006)
National sample survey Organisation (NSSO,1991) 1.9% of
indian population are disabled
Status of PWD is invisible in india till today
Current legislation
 PWD Act 1995
 National trust Act
 Mental health act
 All the above legislative machinery has failed
to provide a foundational ground of social
justice and empowerment as citizens of the
country
 Non punishable /without any teeth
New legislation with UNCRPD
PWD ACT 1995
NEW LEGISLATION -UNCRPD
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Fragmentation of services, ad hoc,
patch work, : disability commissioner
Definition of disability-degree of
disability is problematic -medical zed
Categorization of disability into 7
categories
PWD treated as Objects of charity
Central and state work in isolationFragmentation of services at ministry
levelVertical-top down approach
Construction of disability-medical
Non punishable
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Statutory judisiary system-tribunall system for
social justice and reaching to all-Disability Rights
Authority
Definition of disability –person hood approach
Include all disability in one umbrella
PWD treated as subjects of rights and citizenship
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Central and state are interdependent on each
other-inclusion
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Statutory machinery tribunal system aiming to
streamline services till grassroots/district level
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All ministry involvement central, state courts on
Vertical to horizontal bottom up
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Construction of disability-social
Punishable-tribunals, court
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Affirmative action in place-edu,health
Restructuring processess
 Government of India –ministry of social justice an d
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empowerment signatory to uncrpd made amemdments
Disability Ngos were very unhappy as they were not part of
this amendment making process
Disability ngos voluntarily started consultation on making
new legislation
state Consultation and legal consultation stated happening
in all over india to include voices of pwd
Center for disability studies NELSAR hydrabad with law
consulation was appointed by GOI to draft new law
April 30 2010 meeting with core consultative committee to
draft the law and submit it to the GOI by 30 june 2011.
CHRONOLOGY OF RESTRUCTURING
THE NEW LAW OF PWD
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2007-First convention of UNCRPD-Nov 2007
2008 -Implemented in may 2008-india signed MOU
2009- Modifying the existing law to comply with the conventiongovernment amended the existing act –
2009-First voluntary consulative meeting happened -Oct 2009 of legal
experts having disability and disability NGOs
30 April 2010,under Sudha Kaul chairing deliberated with committee for
preparing a draft using UNCRPD headed by Dr Amita dhanda to draft
the law and present to GOI in 14 months
Feb and march 2011 consulation occurred in 4 zones-north,west,south
east
Consulation invoved regional ngos,govrnment organisations,centre for
disability studies TISS,
Consultation –followed by submission to government by june 30 2011
This new draft of the law will go to all minisries (law,educ,health,finance
and all) to work out implementationary mechanisms2
Law Drafting committee
 Prof Amita Dhanda the head of the Legal
Consultant’s team in her presentation spoke
of how the principles of the CRPD and the
aspirations of persons with disabilities have
been the guiding principles for the
Committee. In the performance of this task
the Committee had followed precedents
where available but also acted on first
principles where required
PWD-New legislature 2011
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Core uncrpd framwork
Seven major chapters
Chapter1:definitions and guiding principles for implementation
Chapter 2 are on lifting the barriers and awareness building and
on equality and non discrimination
Others are on legal capacity and civil and political rights
Capacity development-edu,sports,health,security
Authorities –disability rights authority which involve chief, state,
and district commissioner-issuing legal ly binding statutory code
of practice ensuring justice
this draft with all the consultative minutes will be submitted to
GOI on 30th june 2011 for implementation process
New paradigm shift-lens of
improving QOL & Affirmation
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Education
Employment
Health
DRA
Social political rights
Lifting barriers
Equality and non discrimination
Statutory machinery(tribunal)for justice to all
Aiming towards nothing about us without us
education
 All authorities engaged in higher education should
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be brought under the scope of the law.
provision for lab assistance and readers.
Reasonable accommodation and neighborhood
school
Time frame for physical accessibility
Reservation should be provided for wards of parents
with disabilities.
The School management committee should include
parents with disabilities.
School should be located within a radius of 1 km for
primary education, 3 km for secondary education.
employment
 The reservation of vacancies needs to be reexamined.
 The power to grant exemption should not be totally removed.
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This power could be conferred on the DRA but the advantages of
retaining this power in the context of reservation needs to be
appreciated.
Carry Forward should be done for a period of three years. When
interchange done there needs to be provision for compensating
the category of disability.
Transfer and posting should be in vicinity of residence or in place
of choice
NREGA like scheme should be created for urban areas for
persons with disabilities.
It should be presumed that the removal of a person with
disability during probation is by reason of disability and the
burden of dispelling that presumption should be on the employer
Disability cirtification
 the process of certification and desired that
the statute should protect persons with
disabilities from the requirements of having
to obtain multiple certificates. It was
suggested that the full faith and credit clause
in
 Art 261 of the constitution should be
extended to medical certificates
Socioeconomic and civil
rights
 Accessibility
 There should be a provision for E-workplace accessibility.
 When dealing with government and private websites
providing consumer services, the term consumer services
needs to be defined.
 It should be mandated that all Indian language websites use
Unicode characters, otherwise screen reader problems
arise.
 The Delivery of Books Act should be amended : accessible
version of books should be deposited in the repository as
per the Act.
 As per 24(3), all establishments shall facilitate reasonable
accommodation: Explanation must refer to adequate
measures and not facilities.
New legislation –uncrpd
framwork
strength
weaknesses
 Enforcing statutory
 All disability are clubbed
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machinary for disability rights
authorities - based frame
work
Interrelartedness and
independednce
Affirmative action
National tribunal
District courts also proposed
Cirtificationunder cont-261applicable to all india
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together
Diversity is not looked upon
Divide and rule
Sexakl disability is missing
Parents bodies are rigidto
give away gardianship
Multiple dibility cannot be
taken care of
Will be implemented in
march 2012
methodology
 Primary data; semi structured interview schdule
with the members of the consultative committee
 Secondary data-new draft committee report
 Uncrpd document
 Articals on new legislation written by lawers and
legal group of consultative comitee
 Qualitative analysis of the primary and
secondary data
 Adding inputs from being part of the
consultative meetings of new legislation.
Outcomes
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Including all disability under one umbrella is problematic due to their
diversified needs and concerns
Under 323 B there is a need to make constitutional changes to design
remedy of such vast population with such large diversity
State and district judicial bodies with power to operate and fast driven
justice facilitation has to be operationalise
This draft should be read by all ministry to make necessary changes in
their existing law
Constitutional amendments has to be made to include PWD as citizens
Guardianship in national trust act has to be relooked
Sound mind –in constitution has to be relooked
Constitution 261 on public record–applicable for disability certificate-to
all over India
Constitutional amendments are must
 Thank you