You may get afflicted by disability if you take bribes- say DDA's posters

Dear Colleagues,

Disability is a result of your past mistakes or karmas and can afflict you if you engage in corruption or bribery - says the Delhi Development Authority through brightly colured posters that are seen in DDA buildings to discourage people from taking bribes.

The posters say that wealth amassed by taking bribes is spent on diseases. To put the point across, the posters show pictures of people afflicted with leprosy, skin diseases and deformities. I am surprised by the ignorance of DDA about UNCRPD and that they still continue to reinforce the stereotypes about disability. This also shows in what light they view persons with disabilities which is bound to reflect on their actions in dealing with persons with disabilities as employees, stakeholders, consumers etc.

Here is some news coverage from Hindustan Times on such move:

DDA posters offend disability rights activists

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), while celebrating its annual vigilance week recently, planned to do something different and put up several colourful posters across its offices in the Capital. Made to create awareness, the posters have instead ended up offending many. The brightly  coloured posters with some shocking visuals, which dot every corner of the DDA’s several offices, say that wealth amassed by taking bribes is spent on diseases. To put the point across, the posters show pictures of people afflicted with leprosy, skin diseases and deformities.

Though the idea behind the posters was to create awareness, the visuals have not gone down well with many DDA employees.

“The posters are highly objectionable as these are discriminatory and portray people with disabilities in a bad light. There are many of our colleagues who are visually or physically disabled and they are hurt by this gesture of our vigilance department, which has prepared the posters,” said Sukhbir Sharma, president, joint action committee, DDA trade unions and engineers, which is an umbrella body of all employees’ unions of the DDA.

The committee has written to the Delhi lieutenant governor Tejendra Khanna, who is also the DDA chairman, to order the immediate removal of the posters.

“To create awareness about corruption, the posters could have just given numbers of nodal officers to be contacted if asked for a bribe,” he said. “The DDA has been trying to bring people with disabilities into the mainstream, but on the other hand it is discriminating against them in such way.”

“People putting up such posters need to be sensitised first before those taking bribes. It is highly discriminatory and spread such wrong notions about people with disabilities,” said Anjalee Agarwal, director, Samarthyam.

“Such posters reinforce the stereotype that disability is a result of your past mistakes or karma. We condemn any such move and the posters should be removed immediately,” said disability rights activist Javed Abidi. “By trying to remove one evil, the DDA is promoting another,” he said.

Abidi said that such an insensitive act by the DDA washes away the fight against such strongly ingrained stereotypes. Senior DDA officials couldn’t be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts.

Source: Hindustan Times

A critique of the Draft Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2012

Dear Colleagues,

The recent draft put up by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India on its website seeking comments from the states appears to be old wine bottled in a new case with a new name. To me, it is more philosophical and less implementable in the courts of law since it doesn’t give a time frame to many of the provisions. It even takes away many of the positive provisions of the existing statute, Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights & Full Participation Act 1995 (hereafter referred to as existing Act).

We need to understand that the whole process of ministerial consultations on amendment to the PWD Act 1995 was over when the UNCRPD came into force in 2007, and the whole process got stalled since the disability sector wanted more time to understand the UNCRPD and then suggest changes in the law.

The UNCRPD introduces a paradigm shift in the discourse relating to persons with disabilities which is based on three pillars – the presumption of legal capacity, equality, and dignity for persons with disabilities.

We as lawyers have tried and tested the existing Act in the court of law and have found it extremely helpful in restoring some of the rights of the disabled. We also found many gaps and brought them to the fore during consultations and at various other forums.

The draft RPDB 2012 is significant for having come post-CRPD and post-consultations with the stakeholders; it must, therefore, pass the test of the simple questions below:

Does the new draft fill up the gaps found in the existing Act and match the aspirations of the stakeholders?

Does the new Bill, in the light of UNCRPD, recognize that the persons with disabilities are an integral part of human diversity, who enrich it with their vision, experience and creativity and therefore, does it ensure participation of persons with disabilities in society on an equal basis with others?

My observations are:

(a) The existing Act looks at the disabled people as a special vulnerable group for which special protective measures are required, whereas the new draft advocates all human rights to persons with disabilities so that they can live in community on an equal basis with non-disabled members of community which is a welcome move.

(b) Words like “within the economic capacity & development” have been removed which previously allowed the state to be selective.

(c) Sections of persons who got left out, such as people cured of leprosy, persons with mental Illness, intellectual disablement, multiple disabilities, muscular dystrophy, etc. who always got left out have been included in the definitions and in the entitlements of reservation in jobs which is a positive step.

(d) However, it is unreasonable to add persons with autism and intellectual disabilities with persons with mental Illness in one common category, since mental illness (recovered) is a distinct disability from the other two. The act is silent on how it would compensate those who have lived with mental illness for a considerable period. There is a long way ahead since the process of identification of jobs will only happen once the draft takes the shape of a law.

(e) The draft also talks about equal opportunity polices to be adopted by every establishment, however in the age of information technology it would be advisable to also mandatorily have these documents available on the specific website of the establishment; and to have a website must be made mandatory.

(f) It has many positive provisions such as definitions of barrier, widened interpretation of the term ‘establishment’ to include even societies and trusts in its fold; prohibited grounds; public buildings, universal design and discrimination on the basis of disability – all of which were earlier subject to interpretation of courts and authorities.

(g) Guiding principles are the hallmark of the new draft which can come to the rescue of courts, policy makers and implementing authorities in case of doubt.

(h) Legal capacity and equal recognition before the law, introduction of limited guardianship, reproductive rights, access to justice, education, work & employment, creation of grievance redressal mechanisms in establishments, health and insurance, leisure & sporting activities, provisions for high support are welcome provisions.

(i) The duties of the state on accessibility, mobility, ICT, service animals, HRD, certification of disability and registration of institutions have been succinctly included.

(j) Review & revision in identification of posts: Similarly, Section 38 of the draft talks about identification of posts and to review and revise the list of identified posts taking into consideration developments in technology. However, it doesn't include a condition that specifically makes it possible for the review process to only add further posts and not reduce the posts already identified.

(k) Insurance: Insurance has been an area where the actuaries rule. All their books and views seem to underwrite the life of persons with disabilities as highly risky, vulnerable to accidents and death, though there has never been an empirical study to suggest this thought or belief. The draft talks of comprehensive insurance benefits for the disabled, but it is feared that they may be exposed to higher premiums with less maturity benefits. Actuaries have also traditionally completely denied insurance covers to those with neurological disabilities and underwritten the lives of disabled discriminating even on the basis of whether the disability was from birth or acquired after birth! We had a long battle in the Delhi high court after which the court allowed equal insurance at no extra premium for the PLI [postal life insurance policies run by the Department of Posts]. We hope this discrimination stops with the new provisions of the draft.

(l) Reservation in jobs for persons with disabilities: Prior to the existing Act, almost from 1985, the reservations in jobs – both in recruitment as well as in promotion were allowed to Group C & D. After the existing Act, it stood extended to Group A & B as well, in light of Department of Personnel & Training’s (DoPT) memorandums dated 04 July ’97 & 16 Jan ’98. However, over the years, the government took a stand that it was only meant to clarify for Group C&D and not for Group A & B and put this exclusion in black and white vide a consolidating  DoPT’s memo dated 29 Dec 2005, completely going against the mandate of the existing Act. The matter is sub-judice, and it challenges this interpretation of the government.

(m) Reservation in promotion: After the Sixth Pay Commission the Group D posts have been dissolved and Group C are being merged with Group B. In such scenario, the restrictive provision that reservation is only allowed from Group D to C has actually become redundant to persons with disability unless it is extended to all the groups i.e. A & B too.

(n) The current draft thus is a huge disappointment on this front. By making changes in the language it has taken away what was available to the stakeholders in the existing Act. It says “every appropriate government shall reserve, in every establishment under them, not less than 5% of the vacancies meant to be filled by direct recruitment”. Whereas the existing Act says “Every appropriate Government shall appoint in every establishment such percentage of vacancies not less than three per cent for persons or class of persons with disability of which one per cent each shall be reserved for persons suffering from….”

(o) All forms of appointments should be included in the purview of reservation viz. direct and indirect appointments, promotion, vacancies filled by deputation, contractual appointments etc.

(p) Similarly the reservation in all categories i.e. A, B, C & D has not been based on total existing cadre strength and merely on the number of vacancies being filled at a particular point of time. This is very restrictive and they may not bring forth proper representation of PWDs in the government services in next several decades.

(q) The vacancies continue to lapse in favor of non-disabled in the new draft also. This has to be stopped completely. We have seen in our practice that often posts are kept vacant in the garb of not finding a suitable candidate. The employer seems to have no responsibility to fill up the post and no duty is cast on him to fill up the post in the draft. The employer’s role to fill up the post must be widened by arranging Pre-recruitment training/coaching in all forms of employment and then fill up the posts positively.

(r) The draft seems to pardon the defaulting establishments from the purview of the existing Act by not addressing the issue of backlog vacancies. Filling the backlog vacancies in a given time frame for the period effective from year 1996 for the three disabilities, and for five disabilities from the day of promulgation of the new draft should be specified to form part of draft. [The three categories mentioned in the existing Act are blindness and low vision; hearing impairment; loco motor disability and cerebral palsy. The new Draft Bill proposes, in addition, the categories of autism, intellectual disability and mental illness; and multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness]

(s) There is no time-frame in the affirmative clauses in the draft. We have seen with our experience that to get a scheme under a section of the existing Act, we had to seek intervention of the court and then only several schemes were notified. Scheme for education in Section 30 is just one example. And we continue to see that despite the Census 2010-11 completed a long time ago, the data related to disability has not yet been released. The draft retains the Special employment exchanges which have been so far dysfunctional. These are simply a drain on the disability budget. It would be advisable to have these included in the general employment exchanges with special facility for the persons with disabilities in areas near their residences. Often special employment exchanges are just one or two in the entire state which put undue burden on the persons with disability to travel far distances to just get registered.

If the draft addresses the above concerns, it can, in my view reflect the aspiration of several disabled people. Otherwise, this would be termed as same old wine in a new bottle and with a new label!

The above critique has also been carried by Retina India Newsletter 

Making Mounuments accessible to Visually Impaired

Dear Colleagues,

A group of students at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) along with NGO Saksham, have come up with 12 miniature models of monuments from across the world to help blind children touch and try and understand for themselves by touching and feeling what the monuments looks like.  Till now,  a mere description of what a monument looks like was the closest they could come to seeing the real thing.

The students and design workshop faculty at SPA undertook the project to develop to-scale architectural models of well-known monuments and structures from around the world for the visually-impaired children at Saksham. The idea was floated by the NGO and quickly taken up by Vikrant Sharma, a guest faculty at the school.

"I heard about the idea that Saksham had and spoke to the first year students of the Workshop and Design class at SPA about it. It is a process that will benefit the visually-impaired children as well as the students as it will make them more socially aware and compassionate citizens," said Sharma.

The 70 students have worked in groups for 6 weeks and come up with 12 miniatures that go on display on Saturday at the school.

"If we had to indicate a water body, students have used wet sponge to recreate the effect since this project is more about the feel. Durability has also been kept in mind and the students have used materials such as plastic, plaster of Paris, PVC pipes and paints to recreate different textures," Sharma added.

According to members at Saksham, learning about heritage structures is very important for visually-impaired students.

"A visit to a museum, whether of art, local history or technology, or to a site of historical importance, is just as worthwhile for the blind and partially sighted as it is for visitors without visual impairments. They learn about their culture and past history," said Rumy Seth, member, Saksham.

See News: Blind students get to 'see' world monuments 

Present education system is inaccessible to deaf

Our entire education system, even the special schools /infrastructure created for the hearing impaired (barring few exceptions) is unwelcoming and inaccessible to the deaf children. Need of interpreters at public places is one demand from the sector to make the environment accessible for the hearing and speech impaired. However, the effort of mainstreaming or of providing interpreters will not bring the desired result if the root cause is not targeted. 

The education system in the Government Schools for the Deaf is unscientific and results in only 2-3% pass percentage at matriculation level in a state like Delhi. I personally know this since I have seen several deaf young adults re-attempting the matriculation exam time and again to get those 33% but with rot learning and remembering the paragraph visually will not lead to formation of correct sentences. Majority of deaf children who have passed 10th from the Government deaf schools can not write a full paragraph of their own which is grammatically correct - in any language - be it Hindi or English. Is this what we are aspiring for?

The whole education system for the deaf needs an overhaul with sign language also getting its due place in the  overall education system. The teachers and supporting staff do not know sign language. So much so, the deaf person remain alienated in their own families since there is hardly any effort or facility to train the family members in sign language.  A deaf person always prefers to marry another deaf person indicates the level of their alienation from the mainstream society. 

Unless we did something to remove this alienation due to lack of communication with the deaf children / persons in various walks of life - be it education, employment or social inclusion, the deaf will continue to suffer and government will continue to help them become handicapped and excluded.

The report below from UP reveals the ground realities being faced by people.

Govt's deaf & mute approach turns them into handicapped

TNN | Nov 14, 2012, 01.28 AM IST

LUCKNOW: As a child Vijendra, 28-year-old always wanted to be a gazetted officer. Though deaf and mute, he overcame disability with his sheer willpower and hard work, and cleared the examinations with good grades. However, the pathetic state of affairs in the two government schools meant for hearing-impaired children (in Agra and Gorakhpur till class 10thh forced Vijendra to take admission in a regular school in class ninth, which neither had trained teachers nor facilities needed to meet the special needs of the children like him. As a result, he failed twice to clear class 10th examination, lost his confidence and saw his dreams virtually crashing. Vijendra had no other option, but to leave studies and take up job for the sake of his family. Today, Vijendra works as a helper in an outlet of a retail giant. His job is to bring back the trolley left by people at parking and for this he gets Rs 3,500 per month.

"There are many like me, who want to do something big in life but cannot because there are no schools for us," said Vijendra while narrating the difficulties he underwent in a regular school. Similar is the case of Sanjay Singh, who is working at an outlet of a retail giant.

As per official estimates, there are around three million deaf children in India and around 25,000 such children take birth every year. According to disabled welfare department, the population of deaf and mute people in the state is about eight lakh including around 4,80,000 deaf children. In the absence of a special school, around 50% students with hearing impairment drop out after basic education in India every year. The situation in UP is said to be worse. According to a study conducted by Kaushalendra Kumar, a teacher at NC Chaturvedi School for Deaf, the drop out rate of deaf and mute students after class eighth in UP is 95%. "For deaf children, normal school is like a river in which they get drowned, as they do not know how to cross it," said Kumar.

Even if a deaf and mute student is able to clear the school level, there are no facilities for them in the higher education. Take the example of Faizal (22) who managed to clear class 10th and 12th from a normal school, but found that there is no college with facilities for hearing impaired in higher education. There is a university for disabled - UP Viklang Uddhar Dr Shakuntala Mishra Rehabilitation University, but it does not have facilities for hearing impaired. Faizal took admission in BA, but found that the teachers at the university teach orally and do not use the sign language for hearing impaired or an interpreter. "As I am deaf by birth, I cannot speak and hence there is no communication between me and the teacher," said a visibly angry Faizal whose repeated request to provide an interpreter fell on the deaf ears of the university authorities.

Not only education, there are no facilities for the hearing impaired as far as sports is concerned. Raj Kumar (23) left school after class eighth. But he is a good cricket player and was selected as an all-rounder North Zone in 2010. But after that, as there was no coaching or resources available for him, he did not qualify for any other cricket match. Now he is searching for job for livelihood. Earlier, the youth and sports department of the state used to give a grant of Rs two lakh per annum for sports activities of deaf children. However, the grant was discontinued in 2004 on grounds that it has funds only to support 'normal' sportspersons. When the deaf sportsperson went to the disabled welfare department with the request, they were sent back to sports department. They are running from pillar to post since then.

Significantly, there are number of hearing impaired sportsperson in UP who have done well at the national and international level. Asif Ayubi has won several medals at the state and national levels in 10,000 metre race and stood fourth in Melbourne Deaflympics in 2005. Vikram Singh, brought laurels to the country by winning a bronze medal in the 3rd Asia Pacific International Badminton championship. However, their career in sports was cut short after the sports department stopped the grant. "Many think that the sports and extra-curricular activities for the disabled are useless, but the fact is that it helps in breaking the communication barriers and improves self-confidence. Many deaf children have excelled in life after improvement in their communication abilities," said Rajeev Kumar Sharma, general secretary, Uttar Pradesh Sports Council for Deaf.

Sharma is himself a deaf person and is an example for others to follow. Hailing from a poor family, Sharma's parents did not spend on his education. But they educated his younger brother who was not disabled. To support his studies, Sharma sold water, watches and toys at Kaiserbagh bus stand for many years. In the morning, he used to go to school and also used to take typing classes, while in the noon and evening, he used to sell such items. He passed class eighth from NC Chaturvedi School For Deaf and class 10{+t}{+h} from a regular school in the year 1988. He got the job of typist in the Army in 1992. At presently, he is the office superintendent.

While talking to TOI, principal secretary, handicap welfare department, VN Garg said that there is need to add more schools for deaf children because two schools till class 10{+t}{+h} in the state are not enough for a large number of students. "But we face problem of shortage of funds and trained teachers. The average per capita expenses incurred on a disabled child's education is three times higher than a normal child. Apart from infrastructure, we need to provide all kind of incentives to disabled students," said Garg.

Commenting on the need of an interpreter for students with hearing disabilities, registrar, UP Viklang Uddhar Dr Shakuntala Mishra Rehabilitation University, SK Srivastava said, "We are aware about the problem and we will appoint the interpreters when we will find them, as there is scarcity of such teachers in the market." He added that the students are not facing difficulties in the studies, as they can understand what is written on blackboard or projector. All of them have passed class XII without the help of an interpreter.

Special Financial Planning for your child with disability

Hi,

I came across this informative peace, though not complete in many respects. This is based on the information and law that exist today and doesn't suggest or foresee the circumstances in the coming days looking at the major developments in the sector, particularly, the Delhi High Court ruling that calls for equal benefits in Post Life insurance to the disabled employees; the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2012 awaiting introduction in the parliament and the supported decision making in place of full /limited guardianship. Nevertheless, this may help many. Here it goes.

A differently abled child needs special financial planning for a secure future

Vidyalaxmi, ET Bureau | Nov 14, 2012, 09.08 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Every child is special; and differently abled children are even more special. In normal circumstances, the biggest worry for most parents is high education expenses. However, in case of special children, the worries extend beyond that. Parents of such children have to plan for extra medical expenses and for expenses much beyond college. In some cases, even for their lifetime. The parents also need to put in place a system where there is someone who takes care of the child when they are no more and the benefits should keep coming to the child.

"When it comes to a special child, financial planning involves two stages. The first stage is financially providing for the life during the parents' lifetime. In the second stage, one has to build a mechanism through which the child continues to meet his/her financial needs after the parent's lifetime," says Mukund Seshadri, certified financial planner & partner, MS Ventures Financial Planners. On children's day, it is time to make a beginning and build a meaningful corpus for your special child. One can consider the following points while drawing up a financial plan.

Legal guardian after 18 years

In a regular case, parents' responsibility could be for a limited period. However, in case of a special child, the timeframe could depend on the severity of disability. In some cases it could extend for a very long time. "These children go to special school and could need extra health care expenses. You are natural guardian to your children only until they are 18 years; but once their status changes from 'minor' to 'major', you need to take legal guardianship from court for your special child," says Pankaj Mathpal, certified financial planner and managing director, Optima Money Managers. "Parents can take the legal guardianship themselves or appoint a sibling or somebody else as guardian to the child."

Allocate more to equities

"In case of a special child, you may have to provide for income for the entire life. This is very difficult to calculate," says Kartik Jhaveri, certified financial planner, Transcend India. Even if the child could eventually generate income based on his abilities and skill sets, retirement planning should be done in a manner that the child has sufficient means of income through alternative sources. The investment plan will vary from family to family based on their financial realities. Asset allocation is the key and knowing the kind of corpus and returns that you would need for your goals is paramount, according to experts. "As a general rule, a portion of the portfolio should be allocated to equities and this portion could be higher considering the time horizon in such cases (for retirement goal: parents as well as child's ) is more than 30-plus years. Parents should also have exposure to real estate (not as an investment, but as a residence), which can come in handy to the child," Jhaveri adds.

Buy a high sum assured term plan

This is a must, especially for parents who don't hold any assets. "Parents should consider buying a high sum assured term plan, which will factor in the uncertainty risk if something were to happen to the parents. Today' term plans are very reasonably priced and affordable," says Seshadri. "Parents should choose the child as a beneficiary and can nominate some trustworthy individual to ensure that the beneficiary gets his/her share of proceeds after the parent's death."

Create a trust

Another way is to create a non-revocable trust and appointing trusties. Creating a trust comes with its own set of challenges such as setting up the trust, registering a PAN Card, defining the functions of the trust, choosing the trustees etc. You can form a trust any time. The first step is to frame a trust deed with legal help. The trust deed defines the objective of the trust, includes the names of trustee members, powers and rules and regulations pertaining to its functioning. The key is to appoint trustee members who are younger to the parents.

This may take care of the possibility of the trustee's death before the parents'. "Closest family members are the preferred choice for trustees. In absence of that, you can take help of some NGOs or The National Trust," says Mathpal. The National Trust is an autonomous organisation of the ministry of social justice and empowerment, Government of India, set up under the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act (Act 44 of 1999). If you plan to set up a trust, financial advisors expect the initial costs to be around Rs 30,000 in metros and Rs 20,000 in smaller towns. "If parents have a trustworthy relative in a sibling or an uncle/aunt, it is any day easier to create a will. The process of setting up a will and its execution is far simpler and affordable for most individuals," says Seshadri.

source: The Times of India