Understanding of disability issues

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 2006 was a big step towards viewing persons as “subjects with rights” and not “objects of charity”

World Disability Day was celebrated today on December 3, 2017. The annual observance of International Day of Disabled Persons was first proclaimed in 1992.

• The United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3 brought this observance into being.
• The observance of the day aims at bridging the gap in the society and brings an understanding of disability issues and brings dignity, rights, and well-being of persons with disabilities.
• International Day of Disabled Persons is used to celebrate by lots of the people to make every people understand the problems and difficulties of the Disabled people.
• It is very useful for every people to focus on the Right Path and to cultivate around every type of work to manage all the things properly.
• There are many types of Disables persons in many of the Countries by which the Disabled persons are not able to do many kinds of work for their better living.
• Disabled persons are disabled due to their many of the Body parts which cannot function properly or totally.
• There are many Disabled people who don’t have the Body parts like the Hands, Legs, Ears, Eyes etc and many other internal Body parts problems by which the person can’t be able to do many of the work properly.
• So it is important for every people to take care of their Health to live better in their life.
• There are many of the people who can’t be able to speak due to their Internal Mouth problem.
• This type of Disabled person has to make the people understand by the Sign Language which is difficult for many of the Disabled people to understand it.
• Sign Languages are Difficult and many of the people are used to get difficulty for many of the Months.
• But there are many of the Institutes which are started by the Government by which One can be able to make the people understand by Sign Languages after proper teaching to the Disabled people in the Institutes.
• There are many of the people who are not able to work properly due to their Hands or Legs Problems.
• Hands are used to do many of the tasks like the Typing, Sweeping, doing Housework and many other types of work.
• There are lots of the people who are using artificial Hands or Legs to do all the activities by their Hands and Legs to walk, run and Stand.
• Artificial Hands and Legs with various other Artificial Body parts are used to make the Disabled people do every type of tasks comfortably and properly.
• The government has made many of the better Rules for the Disabled people to get them proper Rules for their betterment to do every task properly and comfortably.
• There are many of the Rules of the Government where Disabled people are getting every type of Facility and Service for their better living.
• It is quite possible for every Disabled people to know every type of idea and plan about how to work properly by some parts of the Body which are Disabled.
• There are many of the Institutes which are developed by the Government to focus on the problems of the Disabled persons and to solve them with types of Ideas and various Technologies.
• It is very difficult for every people to manage and tackle all the activities without the proper Body functioning of every part. It is quite difficult for every Disabled person to do every type of activity with proper planning and simplicity.
• It aims to bring the disabled people at the forefront in the society and get them included in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.
• Assumptions about the disabled:
• Disabled people are the most vulnerable section of society and have been ignored by state and society alike since long.
• Disabled people have always been dependent and, therefore, need helping hands and gracious charity.
• Disabled people are victims of their own bad luck.
• Disability is the punishment for sins he has never committed in this life.
• Such assumptions about the disabled do nothing to help them. This approach perpetuates the stereotype of the disabled as victims and objects of pity and charity.

The Disability Rights Movement:

• Unlike other movements like Feminism or Lesbian Movements which have distinct agendas of either gender justice or the right to sexual orientation, the Disability Rights Movement does not have systematic path.
• Disability Rights Movement even in the West has a very recent origin and tries to draw strength from the traditional legal order rather than by critiquing or deconstructing it.
• The Disability Rights Movement in India and in Third World countries is disorganized and there are no written documents to trace its origin.
• Instead of coming together, sections of disabled viz. blind persons, persons with physical disability, deaf and dumb persons and those with mental disabilities hare launched their movements and struggles separately, mainly through NGOs.
• The disability rights movement gained momentum in the 1970s when disability was started to be seen as a human rights issue. This is when the UN General Assembly proclaimed in 1976 that 1981 would be the International Year of Disabled Persons.
• Later, 1983-1992 was marked as the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons.
• The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 2006 was a big step towards viewing persons as “subjects with rights” and not “objects of charity”.
• Further, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledges to “leave no one behind”. It states that persons with disabilities must be both “beneficiaries and agents of change”.
• However, attitudinal, institutional, and infrastructural barriers remain, with the World Bank stating that 15% of the world’s population experiences some form of disability and that they “on average, as a group, are more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic outcomes than persons without disabilities”.
• In 2011, the World Health Organization came up with a world report on disability for the first time. Its introduction showed how disabled persons aren’t “other people”, but that all of us at some point will be “temporarily or permanently impaired” and those “who survive to old age will experience increasing difficulties in functioning.”

Government’s Relief for the disabled in India:

• Until 1995 there was no law that even defined discrimination against people with disabilities. It is only with the ‘Persons with Disabilities Act,’ passed in 1995 that discrimination specifically against persons with disabilities came under the purview of the law.
• Objective of the Act was to spell out the responsibility of the State towards the prevention of disabilities, protection of rights, provision of medical care, education, training, employment and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.
• In India, according to the 2011 Census, 2.21% of the population has one or multiple types of disabilities, making the country home to one of the largest disabled populations in the world.
• Legislation moved forward last year in India when the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act was passed, replacing the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016
• The 2016 Act recognizes 21 kinds of disabilities compared to the previous seven, including dwarfism, speech and language disability, and three blood disorders.
• It fulfills the obligations to the United National Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which India is a signatory.
• Responsibility has been cast upon the appropriate governments to take effective measures to ensure that the persons with disabilities enjoy their rights equally with others.
• Every child with benchmark disability between the age group of 6 and 18 years shall have the right to free education
• The new Act also increased the quota for disability reservation in higher educational institutions from 3% to 5% and in government jobs from 3% to 4%, for a more inclusive society.
• The Act provides for grant of guardianship by District Court under which there will be joint decision – making between the guardian and the persons with disabilities.
• Broad based Central & State Advisory Boards on Disability are to be set up to serve as apex policy making bodies at the Central and State level.
• Creation of National and State Fund will be created to provide financial support to the persons with disabilities.

Themes of the InternationalDay of Disabled Persons

• International Disabled Persons Day is used to celebrate with many of the people to realize the people the situation and problems of the Disabled people.
• The government has made many of the Rules and Regulations for the Disabled people to get them every Facility and Service by publishing many of the Themes of the Disabled Persons which are as Follows:-
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2015 was “Empowerment as well as Access for all the people who have the ability to work: Inclusive Matters”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2014 was “Technological promise: Developmental Sustainability”.
• A theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2013 was “For the Development of all and the Inclusion Society : Stop Barriers and Open the Door”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2012 was “Barriers to remove for creating the Development and Society for all the people”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2011 was “Come Together for a Better World for all the people with all the Disabled Persons for the development”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2010 was “Disability in the Mainstream in the Development of the Millennium Goals in the 2015 and above it”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2009 was “Inclusion of the MDG’s: Disabled Persons with Empowerment and also Empowering to the Communities in the World”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2008 was “Persons Rights of the Convention with the Disabilities: Justice as well as Dignity for all the people”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2007 was “Disabled persons have Decent work”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2006 was “Electronic Accessibility”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2005 was “Disabled person Rights: Developmental Action”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2004 was “Not with Us, There is Nothing about Us”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2003 was “Your Own Voice”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2002 was “Better Livelihoods with Independent Living”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2001 was “Total Equality and Participation: New Approaches to be a call to get develop and also get the Output”.
• A theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 2000 was “For all the people making the Information Technology work”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 1999 was “For the New Millennium there is Accessibility for it”.
• Theme for the International Day of Disabled Persons in the year 1998 was “Independent Living with the Culture and Art”.

Way forward

• Legislation alone is not enough; implementation remains abysmal. For instance, data from the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People show that 84% of seats for persons with disabilities lie vacant in top universities.
• The success of this Act would, however, depend much upon the extent to which the political leaders and bureaucratic executive internalizes the values, sensibilities and goals enshrined in the Act. If persons with disability are to be regarded as full citizens of India, their right to equal concern and respect must find its expression in the supreme law of the land.
• While we have a long way to go in implementing these laws, we must also keep in mind that a one-size-fits-all approach is unhelpful for disabled persons. Levels and types of disabilities differ and so do need.

By Gudipati Rajendera Kumar