Disability Court
Mahesh
27th May 2006
On 27th May 2006 - I participated in the 'Disability Court' organised by local NGOs. The Commissioners Office for disabilities and representative from the welfare department and road transport department participated. 3 more representative from other Government department who were supposed to attend did not turn up.
I am reporting below 2 of the successes...
One of the key demands was 'What has our state - Karnataka - done to ensure the involvement of personns with disabilities in key decision making bodies' We reminded the slogan 'Nothing about us without us'...and the commissioner for disabilities has committed towards the inclusion of disabled people in key policy level committees...and he has promised to act in the next 3 months. Our aim is to ensure that a person with disability becomes a member of the 'Additional Chief Secretary's committee' as this is the top committee in the state advising the policies of the entire state.
The second demand was the State Coordination Committee formed to implement the disabilities act has to meet once in 6 months, but the committee has not met in the last 3 years due to some bureaucratic procedures...and the commissioner has agreed to address this issues and has promised to organise a meeting of the disabled people with the chief minister.
Although these are promises - we as persons with disabilities and NGOs would be following up to transform them into a reality...
We had many friends with hearing impairments, parents of children with disabilities and other leading NGOs from Bangalore participating...