Suggested Amendments to the Persons with Disabilities

(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights

and Full Participation) Act 1995

A Brief on the different initiatives made by Disability Network, Karnataka

Section 1:        Background

On 26^th May 2006, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment put out a circular it their website http://socialjustice.nic.in/disabled/welcome.htm asking for suggestions as amendments to The Persons with Disabilities (Equal opportunities, Protection of rights and Full participation) Act 1995.

Section 2:        Process of consultations

APD, ADD India and Mobility India engaged in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, decided to have a multi-tiered set of consultations in an effort to stimulate thinking, involve persons with disabilities especially from the rural areas and the slums and involve leading NGOs to come out with a set of amendments that could be forwarded to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment before the deadline of 31^st July 2006.

The consultative process began with a two day workshop for members and leaders of federations of persons with disabilities on the 7^th and 8^th of July 2006. The meeting was attended by 75 participants from 8 districts of Karnataka and yielded some insightful suggestions for amendments. The sessions were facilitated by representatives from ADD India, APD and Mobility India. External resource persons such as Mr. L Krishnamurthy, Commissioner (Disabilities), Office of the Commissioner for Disabilities, Karantaka, Dr. Kshitsij, APSA and Ms. Sheela Ramanathan, HRLN (Human Rights Law Network).

These suggestions were next taken to a focus group discussion held on 15^th July 2006 at Mobility India. 30 participants from various organizations working on issues of persons with disabilities and representing different disabilities attended this daylong discussion. Mr. Ramachandran, ADD India gave a brief background of the discussion, Ms. Lillian, Disability Network presented on the highlights of the discussion on the 7^th and 8^th July, Ms. Laila Olapally, Advocate who is closely associated in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities gave brief overview on ‘Looking at progressive disability related laws in developed countries and points that we can adopt’, Mr. Mahesh, Mobility India presented in brief about the weak points in the present PWD Act and Ms. Muthamma briefly presented on the proposed amendments posted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in July 2006. The suggestions that had been arrived at on the 7^th and 8^th July 2006 were further refined and built upon at this discussion. Many organizations and individuals, who could not be present on the day, emailed their inputs.

Finally, the amendments suggested at workshops held on July 7^th and 8^th and the 15^th of July 2006 was presented during the symposium on July 22^nd 2006 held at Spastic Society Karnataka. This event was facilitated by KPAMRC, ADD India and Spastic Society of Karantaka in which persons with disabilities, parents of children with disability and representatives from NGOs working on disability issues from all parts of Karnataka participated. Dr. Amita Dhanda, Prof. of Law, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University, Hyderabad was invited to present on the proposed amendments to the PWD Act and its relation to the on-going consultation in drafting the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The consolidated suggested amendments for the PWD Act 1995 as proposed during these consultations are part of Annexure #1 of this report.

Section 3:        Acknowledgements:

The consultative sessions have been made possible with the collaborative efforts of organizations such as APD, Mobility India, ADD India, KPAMRC, Spastic Society Karnataka, Human Rights Law Network and CBM International.

The consultative workshops on the 7^th and 8^th of July 2006 and 15^th July 2006 were part funded by Christoffel Blindenmission-South Asia Regional Office South. KPAMRC, ADD India and Spastic Society of Karnataka raised the resources for the workshop on the 22^nd July 2006. We are grateful for their assistance.

The suggested amendments has been done with inputs from -

1. The participants of the meetings held on 7^th-8^th July 2006, 15^th July 2006 and 22^nd July 2006
2. Ms. Lillian D’Costa, Coordinator Advocacy, Disability Network
3. Mr. Ramachandran and Ms. H.K. Shubha of Action on Disability and Development India
4. Mr. Gadkari of KPAMRC
5. Mr. C. Mahesh and Mr. Jaykumar of Mobility India 
6. Mr. K.S Gopinath and Mr. Govindraju of The Association of People with Disability
7. Mr. Deshpande and Ms Anjum Taj of LCI
8. Ms. Kavita – Kilikili
9. Prof. Atul Chokshi of India Institute of Science

Section 4:        Annexures

1. Suggested Amendments to the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 - Jointly developed by the members of Disability Network, Karnataka – July 2006
2. Programme Schedule for the 2 days on 7th and 8th July at UESI-K
3. Programme Schedule for the 15th July at Mobility India
4. Programme Schedule for the 22^nd July at Spastic Society of Karnataka

Annexure #1

Suggested Amendments to the Persons with Disabilities

(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights

and Full Participation) Act 1995

Jointly developed by the members of Disability Network, Karnataka – July 2006

DEFINITION

·        Art. 2 the definition of disability needs to be expanded to include Cerebral Palsy, Autism, multiple disabilities and persons affected by burn injuries

THE CENTRAL COORDINATION & EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES

·     Art. 7. Proceedings of meetings of the Central Coordination Committee and Central Executive Committee to be made public e.g., posted on the Ministry’s website and translated into regional languages, so that it is accessible.

·     Planning at these meetings should have clearly stated time frames for implementation.

·     Persons with disability should be compulsorily included in the Central Coordination and Central Executive Committees.

·     Details regarding the members of these committees and their functioning should be on the Ministry’s website.

THE STATE COORDINATION & EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES

The suggestions made as above for the Central level committees should also be under the State level committees.

• District and Taluk level Committees should be formed to ensure that the schemes and provisions of the Act are implemented.
• Those persons with disability who are unable to represent on their own should be permitted to be represented by others ie., guardian.  They should not be denied the right to represent their views.

PREVENTION AND EARLY DETECTION OF DISABILITIES

§         The implementation of Art. 25 should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Health at the Central Government level and under the Department of Health in each State.

·        The PHCs should engage in awareness programmes in an effort to hasten early detection of disabilities.

·        The Medical Board for issuing disability certificates should be at the taluk level, and they should meet at least once every month.

·        Rehabilitation centres should be at Taluk level to give therapy, training on mobility and ADLS support.

 ·        Identify and take punitive action for environment that cause birth defects.

 EDUCATION

·     The Act should facilitate access to education for all categories of Persons with Disabilities.

·     Inclusive education and sensitization to issues of disability should be part of the curriculum for IPS/ UPSC and other public exams.

·     Presently, Article 26 makes a uniform statement on providing children with free education. The Article should be amended to divide children into categories

    0-5 years– pre-school – the government should provide inclusive early childhood care and development.

    6-14 years – school – government should ensure appropriate disability sensitive curriculum.

    15 years and above.  A plan and monitor each category separately.

·     Teachers training programmes like secondary grade, BEd, MEd, should have one detail paper on inclusive education, and teach prospective teachers methods of dealing with curriculum innovatively for each disability, use of teaching aids.

·     Art 26, a. to be modified to read. To ensure that every child with a disability has access to free education in an appropriate environment till he attains the age of 21 or till completion the Degree course

·     Include information related to disability in school curriculum, and adopt innovative methods to teach disabled students in schools.

·     The Government should initiate research on disabled friendly curriculum and evaluation systems and introduce them from time to time.

EMPLOYMENT

• Art. 33 should be amended to include all disabilities, include persons with mental illness and mental retardation and other disabilities.
• Employment should be mandatory according to the ability of the person and extend the age limit from 38yrs to 45 yrs.
• Mandatory 5% reservation in employment for disabled persons in the public and private sectors. In the reservation roster bring disability within the first 10 listings.
• Greater thrust on self-employment opportunities by making it easier to access loans (reducing paper work) and giving more soft loans and promoting long term loans.
• If a person become disabled due to a work related injury, it should be specifically mentioned who decides whether he is capable of doing the same job or not
• Full accessibility in the work environment for the disabled
• Special Employment Centres to proactively involve in promoting employment opportunities by identifying appropriate jobs, requirements and reviews.
• Incentives to be given in private sectors to encourage employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. Eg., tax benefits given based on the number of disabled persons employed and this should be reviewed every year.
• Penalties for discriminatory practices in work situation ex; salaries, promotions, benefits etc
• Inclusion of persons with disabilities in employment guarantee scheme.
• Vocational Rehabilitation Centers should upgrade present training programmes.
• Amendment Committee (headed by Amita Dhanda) suggestions Pg 70 31A-C to be included.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

• No import duty on equipment meant for disability.
• Tax relief for manufacturers of disability related equipment.
• Art. 42 should be modified to read 50% subsidy or affordable costs, which ever is less, should be fixed to get aids and appliances from the government.
• The government departments should purchase the products made by multiple disabled and intellectually disabled persons.
• Concession for purchasing of land should be 50%
• All public buildings including shopping complexes, banks and post offices, should have ramps and lifts together with at least one accessible toilet, built within a clearly stated timeframe.
• Allotment of land and/or flats for residential purposes and schemes in favour of persons with disabilities and NGOs working for disabled persons.
• Preferential allotment of ground floor accommodation and barrier free environment housing for parents of children with disabilities, persons with disabilities and families with persons with disabilities in transferable jobs.
• Information regarding schemes for the disabled to be made available in Braille and Sign Language.
• Ensure mainstreaming of disability in all development schemes and programmes.

Note:  Ensuring that the rights of Persons with disability are respected and protected should be the responsibility of all Ministries and not only of the Ministry of SJ&E. 

NON-DISCRIMINATION

• Under section 44, the sentence “with in the limits of economic capacity” should be deleted and made mandatory.
• Under section 45, importance is given only to visually impaired and orthopedic disabled people. It should include all disabilities.
• Art. 47 C should include mediclaim.
• Information communication technology used for accessibility should be useful for all types of disability.
• Voting system should be made accessible for all types of disability.
• Give Electoral Reservation to disabled persons at all levels.
• The transport department should put in place facilities like buses and bus stops that are accessible to the disabled. 5% of all buses and taxies should be wheelchair accessible, in the next 5 years.
• Suggestions made by Amendment Committee (headed by Amita Dhanda) on Pg 79, from Art. 43A- 47D to be added.

RECOGNITION OF INSTITUTIONS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

·           The Government must reply to representations filed before it within 45 days.

·         The Dept. of Disability Development and Senior Citizens should provide rehabilitation for the severely disabled.

THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER AND COMMISSIONERS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

·  The post of the Commissioner for disabilities should be given to a person with disability or to a person with at least 5 years experience in the disability sector.

·  Art. 61 The State Commissioner should be given power to punish those who fraudulently accesses schemes for disabled persons. 

·  The State Commissioner should have the authority and power to take decisions on any issue that is related or discriminatory to person with disabilities.

·  The State Commissioner should publish his annual activity report and make it available to the public both through the website and in the regional language.

·  Collaboration and networking among the different State Commissioner’s office to ensure common minimum standards of implementation of the PWD Act is maintained

SOCIAL SECURITY

·  Art. 66(1) The words “within the limits of government and the local authority”, should be changed to “as per the needs of persons with disability”.  

·  Disabled persons should be included in all social security schemes.

·  One ID card must be used to get all the facilities; this may be valid for a period of 5 years. 

·  All disabled persons who do not get employment and those who cannot work should get unemployment pension. 

·  Allocation of more grants for rehabilitation programmes.  

·  Provide access to free legal aid to Persons with Disabilities.

MISCELLANEOUS

·  Art. 69. The punishment for those who avail or attempt to avail any benefit meant for persons with disabilities should be extended - imprisonment of 2 years to 5 years and fine from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000

·  There must be a well-defined punishment for corruption in issuing medical certificates.

·  Punishment should also be given for harassment meted out to persons with disabilities. 

·   The Transport Department must provide a driving license to a person with disability once the doctor approves that the person is capable of driving a two or four wheeler.

A separate chapter is required on women with disabilities, and these provisions should be included in all laws relating to women

The phrase "within the limits of their economic capacity and development" should be removed from the Act wherever it appears.

The participants in the three workshops expressed great concern on the haste the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is showing on pushing the amendments to the Act, especially when the UN convention is scheduled to take place in August where major changes in the definition and understanding are expected to happen.

The participants also expressed concern on the complete `inaction’ by the Ministry of SJ&E on the amendments proposed by the committee that was constituted under the leadership of Dr Amita Dhanda, which submitted its recommendations in March 1999. While the Ministry took no action on those proposed amendments, it calls for fresh proposals. This seems contradictory and ironical.

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Annexure #2

Programme for the 2 days on 7th and 8th July 2006

at UESI-K, 235/ 261, Doddagubbi, Via Bagalur, Bangalore – 562 149, Tel: 25251368/ 22726716, [email protected]

Day 1 – 7th July 2006

Day 2 – 8^th July 2006

Annexure #3

Focus Group Discussion

To suggest Amendments to the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995

- at Mobility India, Bangalore

Programme for the 15th July 2006

Annexure #4

Workshop on the Amendments to the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995

And the U.N. Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

22^nd July 2006 at Spastic Society of Karnataka

PROGRAMME

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