Thursday, March 21, 2013

Enabling the Disabled Society



By
Randeep Wadehra
The world of the disabled is lonely, cold and desolate… where one has to grit one's teeth and struggle for survival while putting up with indignities that are beyond the able people's comprehension. In India, the population of the disabled could be as high as 100 million if one goes by an estimate of the National Sample Survey Organization. Actually, no proper census has ever been conducted of India’s disabled population. However, from time to time, assorted organizations have conducted surveys. Their findings place the disabled population figures ranging from 2% to 10%. Let us assume that population of the disabled is 2%. This translates into approximately 2.5 crores – a number that is mindboggling by any standards – and this is only a conservative estimate.
Article 41 of the Constitution enjoins upon the State to "make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement and other cases of undeserved want." Towards this end the Rehabilitation Council of India Act 1992 (amended in 2000), the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, and the National Trust Act 1999 have been legislated to cover different aspects of the welfare of the disabled. And, recently, a Department of Disability affairs was set up. Yet, on the ground, not much positive change is happening, although the IGNOU’s National Centre for Disability Studies has been set up with the following broad objectives:
  • To design, develop and implement the training programs for the 16 categories of professionals/personnel recognized by the Rehabilitation Council of India.
  • To promote and facilitate research on various disability related issues;
  • To undertake assignments for documentation and dissemination of information related to rehabilitation of people, including children, with disabilities;
  • To identify and develop appropriate information and communication technologies and software for education and training in the area of disability and set up a resource centre at IGNOU;
  • To develop a database of learners with disabilities enrolled in various programs of IGNOU;
  • To organize national/international seminar/workshop/symposia/lecture on various issues related to disability;
  • To adopt innovative approaches and policies for education, training and rehabilitation of children with disabilities;
  • To institute award/merit scholarship for outstanding disabled students; and
  • To develop a network of training, employment, information and guidance centers, share expertise, and extend support to other such programs throughout the country as an apex national resource centre.
The WHO (World Health Organization) has categorized disabilities thus: Impairment (loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function); Disability (restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered  normal for a human being); and Handicap (a disadvantage for a given individual, resulting  from an impairment or a disability, that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal (depending on age, sex and social and cultural factors,  for that individual). Whether one is born with a handicap or gets afflicted with one after spending some years as a normal and healthy person, life is never easy.
The Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 provides that all disabled children get education in an appropriate environment; for which skilled service providers should be available, which is not the case on the ground. Frequently, one comes across media reports on how educational institutions refuse admission to special children on specious grounds. Moreover, in reality, you actually lose right to livelihood if you are physically challenged – for the mentally challenged, this right never ever existed. Oh yes there are jobs reserved for the physically challenged. But, what sort of jobs? Cane chair making? Braille typing?
Instead, why not enable them to compete as equals? Has anyone heard of Stephen Hawking? A society that cares for its challenged population and treats them as resource rather than liability benefits immensely. It is possible to enable our disabled similarly, thanks to the technological advances made. But, even basic facilities to enable easy movement and secure lifestyle are a pipedream. The Directive Principles of State Policy that provide for care and welfare of weaker sections including the handicapped, remain meaningless platitudes on a piece of paper. The 19th session of the UN General Assembly, held in 1975, declared, "...disabled persons have the inherent right to respect their human dignity...they have the right to economic and social security and to a decent level of living to secure and retain employment or to engage in a useful productive and remunerative occupation and to join all trade unions." This so-called inherent right has just not been conceded to Bharat Mata's less fortunate children.
A handicapped person is an individual with full human rights, who is entitled to receive from his society every possible measure of protection, assistance and opportunity for rehabilitation. Empathy and fellow feeling should prevail for making schemes of their rehabilitation effective and successful. However, we live in the community of the deaf. Unless one shouts, exhibits one's raw wounds and beat the breast one is unable to attract attention of those who are at the helm of the polity. There is an urgent need for ensuring a dignified lifestyle for the disabled in an institutionalized manner. For a job requiring mental or intellectual work, all that one needs in this IT Age is access to a connected computer. This should not be difficult for an institution to provide. In spite of making legal and constitutional provisions, there is no real effort to make the life of the disabled tolerable. The very social conscience has become insensitive, if not dead.  Whether it is a market, a government office or a hospital, it becomes impossible for a handicapped person to enter it. Roads are blocked with building material and vehicles; potholes overflow with filth and water... adding to the misery of the distressed. Perhaps this lament is futile. In the current budget, funds earmarked for the various benefit schemes for the disabled by the government are inadequate. In fact, these fall far short of what has been promised in the 12th Plan Document. ‘Lack of resources’ is trotted out as the familiar argument. ‘Lack of will’ is more apposite.  
The Charter of United Nations affirms, "...faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human persons, in the equal rights of men and women and nations large and small". But, when a nation callously ignores its own citizens, such pious expressions become a parody of all things decent.
*****

 Published in The Financial World dated 21.03.2013



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