A hurried disabilities bill will serve no purpose

A hurried disabilities Bill will serve no purpose : Amita Dhanda

TNN | Feb 18, 2014, 01.40 AM IST

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha to universal criticism and till now, 16 amendments have been circulated to members of the upper House in an effort to save the Bill. The objective of the legislation was stated as "a Bill to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" (UN CRPD). Hence it must be in consonance with the requirements of the Convention to fulfill its primary purpose. The CRPD mandates an absolute prohibition on discrimination on grounds of disability, but this Bill permits discrimination provided it is to achieve any legitimate aim, in clear violation of the CRPD!

The CRPD prohibits deprivation of liberty on grounds of disability. The Bill cleverly inserts one word to change the guarantee altogether: it says that no person shall be deprived of his or her personal liberty only on grounds of disability. This formulation was rejected while drafting the CRPD since it permits the deprivation of liberty when a person with disability is destitute or considered to be 'dangerous'. For thousands, the addition of 'only' could mean being forced to live in institutions for the rest of their lives.

The other core CRPD principle that remains to be examined is the right to exercise legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life. Presently scores of laws disqualify persons with disabilities from marrying, inheriting, voting, etc. The CRPD seeks to offset disqualifications imposed upon people with intellectual, psychosocial and developmental disabilities by recognising their right to live their lives according to their will and preference.

However, the 2014 Bill did not even mention the right to legal capacity. In the amendment, legal capacity has been recognised as an obligation of the government, not a right of persons with disabilities. If the government fails to ensure legal capacity, then the person with disabilities can do nothing but bemoan the poor implementation of Indian laws. Consequently, entitlement of reservations in jobs becomes meaningless for persons with disabilities. If it were possible to make things worse, section 110 of the legislation states categorically that the Bill will not override any existing laws, which means all discriminatory laws will continue to be valid!

However, despite the many flaws in the Bill, people with the newly-included disabilities are pressing for its enactment because these disabilities have been waiting for inclusion in the Act since 1999 and feel they cannot wait any more. This grievance is undeniably genuine. The correct way to address this concern would be to amend the Act of 1995, whether by Act or ordinance to include the long-excluded disabilities.

Let us not hurriedly enact a retrograde legislation for all disabilities, which would be impossible to amend for the next 25 years. In order to correct the injustice of exclusion, let us not create an equality of oppression.

(The author is professor and head, Centre for Disability Studies, Hyderabad)

Times of India

An app to tell you which public places are accessible

Want to know which malls, restaurants are disabled-friendly? Soon, an app will tell you

Monday, February 17, 2014 - 06:00 IST | Agency: DNA

Want to know if a restaurant, mall, cinema or a public promenade is friendly for the differently abled? Or whether the lifts in a public building can be used seamlessly by those confined to a wheelchair?

Help may soon be at hand with the state information technology (IT) department planning to develop an app and a linked website which will enable the physically challenged to record their feedback about whether facilities and public spaces are disabled friendly.

Rajesh Aggarwal, principal secretary, IT, told dna that they were working on developing an app to indicate disabled-friendly areas and facilities. "Users will be actually keying in the data," said Aggarwal, adding that this could even cover issues like whether a wheelchair could be accommodated in a cinema hall, mall, multiplex or a walkway.

This facility will also raise awareness about buildings and facilities which are disabled friendly and also compel those which are not suitable for the physically handicapped to re-engineer themselves accordingly to fit the requirements.

The IT department plans to launch the app on Android platforms to be accessed by smart phone users while a corresponding website will be developed for those who do not use smartphones. Aggarwal said they would also request Microsoft to help get the app on the Windows platform.

Welcoming the idea, HK Savla, managing trustee, Jeevan Jyot Cancer Relief and Care Trust, which works for cancer patients and the disabled, said this initiative would raise awareness about the need to make public spaces more disabled friendly. He pointed out that only a few buildings had ramps for the disabled or even toilets to meet their requirements. Savla also recalled an instance where a girl working in a post office was unable to take her wheelchair into the building or even to the toilet.

The department is also developing apps for MahaNews and Lokrajya and has come out with an app to enable users to view the government resolutions (GR) issued by the state government. While MahaNews is the state government's official news and information website, Lokrajya is the state government's official magazine and mouthpiece. The magazine will be available in Marathi, English and Urdu on the app.

Source: DNA India

Best Pratice: Innovating Teaching makes learning a fun for school kids

Village teacher makes learning fun

Vijaysinh Parmar,TNN | Feb 4, 2014, 05.11 AM IST

RAJKOT: Kamlesh Zapadia, a primary school teacher in a remote village of the district, struggles with erratic power supply at his house. But he did not mind travelling 20km to Jasdan daily for a cybercafe to give shape to his innovative teaching aid that makes studying less burdensome. 

Zapadia (35) has converted the entire syllabus from class 1 to 10 in a quiz format - he likens it to Kaun Banega Crorepati (KCB) - so that children don't have to cram textbooks for exams and enjoy studies. 

Zapadia and his friends have developed a website - www.edusafar.com - and uploaded the entire syllabus in the quiz format, a feat that has also been recognized by India's premier business school - Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A). 

Zapadia will be among 100 teachers who will be felicitated by Gujarat Innovative Education Council and Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training, for their innovative ideas in education, in Gandhinagar on February 5. 

"Playing a quiz online is always fun. If the same can be done with syllabus, children will learn faster and enjoy it too," Zapadia told TOI. "Moreover, the entire syllabus in quiz format can be downloaded free of cost from our website. Most schools have computers now and they can utilize it to the maximum," he said. 

Last week, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) conducted a special workshop on this project. "We are keen to carry Zapadia's idea forward and implementing it in all 1,420 schools. We have already distributed the CDs to all the primary schools in the district," said M V Nagani, principal, DIET.

Source : Times of India 

NCERT Study reveals RTE has failed to meet disabled children's needs

This study shared by NCERT and published by Indian Express reveals serious lapses in the implementation of RTE across the country.

RTE has failed to enable the disabled: Study

Written by Anubhuti Vishnoi | New Delhi | January 27, 2014 1:58 am

Three years after the RTE Act came into effect promising free and compulsory education to children aged six to 14 years and special focus on admission and retention of children with disabilities, an NCERT study has found that disabled children in schools across states still face serious infrastructure and pedagogy handicaps.
Apart from absence of ramps and friendly toilets in schools, the larger problem that almost all disabled children face in the classroom is the absence of special teaching material and sensitive trained teachers.
In Gujarat’s Kheda district, a child with locomotor disability said he never leaves his wheelchair due to non-availability of a friendly toilet in his school.

The NCERT report — ‘Status of Implementation of RTE Act in context of disadvantaged children at elementary stage’ — says that “poor infrastructure, non-availability of appropriate furniture for children with disabilities, non-availability of special aids and appliances, poor quality of aids and appliances for children with locomotor disabilities are major challenges in the fulfilment of RTE to these children”.

The study adds that “educational materials for children with disabilities were non-existent in most sample schools. States/ UTs have very limited vision of arranging different types of educational materials for children with various disabilities”.

The 2012-13 study on children with disabilities had revealed that while 99 per cent of these children liked attending regular schools but 57 per cent of teachers were not trained to understand their special needs.
The study was conducted by the NCERT’s department of elementary education in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand, Orissa, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar islands through questionnaires and interviews with school teachers, parents of disabled children and disabled students.
Respondents in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts said there were no Braille books, no assistive devices, no educational materials and no full-time special teachers making it extremely difficult to ensure RTE to children with visual impairments. In Visakhapatnam district, ramps and friendly toilets for children with locomotors disabilities were not appropriate.

Almost all respondents in Almora district of Uttarakhand said their schools did not have facilities and the hilly terrain further complicated their movements. In Orissa, the NCERT study says, there is unhappiness over poor quality of wheelchairs and non-supply of Braille aids despite repeated reminders.

“Wheelchairs and tricycles are supplied to children with locomotors disabilities, though these cannot be used by them due to difficult terrain in Almora district”.

“Special shoes are supplied after one year of assessment, resulting in inappropriate sizes due to growth of feet. Complaint was sent but no satisfactory action was taken,” respondents are quoted in the NCERT study.

In Kerala, children have not been provided teaching-learning materials individually despite the fact that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has a provision for Rs 3,000 per disabled child per year.

The report notes that functionaries and teachers at state-, district- and block-levels were aware of provisions of the RTE Act to a great extent but “orientation of teachers for RTE (except in Orissa) did not include information about disadvantaged and children with disabilities”.

In Jharkhand, respondents pointed out how “there were no special teachers at school level to help children with disabilities; teachers have not been trained to teach children with disabilities; and parents do not bring their children with disabilities to school regularly”.

Sixteen of 25 head teachers/teachers in four districts of Gujarat maintained that it was extremely difficult to teach children with severe mental challenges and multiple disabilities in the classroom.

In Andhra Pradesh, teachers said that “it is difficult to ensure RTE to children with mental disabilities due to behaviour problems and very limited ability to learn. They maintained that these children should be sent to special schools. Respondents in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts said there were no Braille books, no assistive devices, no educational materials and no full-time special teachers”.

The report notes that in Kerala “almost all respondents in both the districts said they encountered difficulties in teaching different categories of children with disabilities. They said that behaviour problem of children with mental disabilities (challenges) makes it difficult to manage classroom teaching. These teachers do not have any special training and they find themselves helpless in dealing with children with mental challenges. Two of the teachers said that in a class of 50 children, it is extremely difficult to pay attention to children with a mental challenge and they try to help these children by explaining to them personally”.

A Comedian with Disability committed to disability awareness: Maysoon Zayid

Dear Friends,

I am greatly impressed by the eloquence of this Palestinian woman from New Jersey Ms. Maysoon Zayid - a writer, actor, comedian and co-founder of New York Arab-American Comedy Festival.

She shatters the myths and stereotypes associated with persons with disabilities in no time and you can not but return much more sensitized and knowledgeable about yourself, about your own beliefs about persons with disabilities and their abilities.

I am sure you would love to see this embeded video herein below: