LEGAL POLICIES
PRESENTER: Niharika Sharma MODERATOR: Dr. Shilpa Mehta
[Link] PSYCHOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
Contents
• Introduction
• Constitutional framework of India
• Acts of disability
• Programs and concessions for the disability
• Certification on disability
• United Nations standard rules on PWD
• Conclusion
• References
INTRODUCTION
• Throughout centuries, the disabled have been oppressed marginalized and
stigmatized in almost all societies.
• They constitute a section of the population, which is most backward least served
and grossly neglected.
• Person with disability are the poorest of the poor and weakest of the weak, who
have been socially, educationally and economically disadvantaged; thus having
customarily denied their right to self-assertion, identity and development.
• Disability is not all alone sometimes impairment and handicap was used
interchangeably, but these terms has different meanings and describe
different concepts.
• To promote appropriate use of these terms, in 1980 the World Health Organization
established the international classification of impairment, disability and handicap,
which define these concepts:
• Impairment – refers to the loss or abnormality of psychological, physical, or
anatomical structure or function at the system or organ level that may or may not be
permanent and that may or may not result in disability.
• Disability – refers to an individual limitation or restriction of an activity as the result
of impairment.
• Handicap – refers to the disadvantage to the individual resulting from an impairment
or disability that presents a barrier to fulfilling a role or, reaching a goal.
• As per 2001 census, 21.9 million or 21,906,769 people are disabled in India, who
constitutes 2.13 per cent of the total population.
• This includes persons with visual, hearing, speech, locomotor and mental disabilities.
• Disabled Population in India as per census 2011 (2016 updated) – In
India out of the 121 Cr population, 2.68 Cr persons are disabled
which is 2.21% of the total population.
• Among the disabled population 56% (1.5 Cr) are males and 44%
(1.18 Cr ) are females. In the total population, the male and female
population are 51% and 49% respectively.
• Majority (69%) of the disabled population resided in rural areas
(1.86 Cr disabled persons in rural areas and 0.81 Cr in urban areas).
• In the case of total population also, 69% are from rural areas
while the remaining 31% resided in urban areas.
Constitutional Framework in India
• The Constitution of India applies uniformly to every legal citizen of India, whether they
are healthy or disabled in any way (physically or mentally) and guarantees a right of
justice, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship and equality of status
and of opportunity and for the promotion of fraternity.
• Relevant Articles in Indian Constitution providing constitutional guarantees to all
including disabled are:
• Article 15 (1),
• Article 15 (2),
• Article 17,
• Article 21,
• Article 23,
• Article 23,
• Article 29 (2),
• Article 32
• Article 15(1): It enjoins on the Government not to discriminate against any
citizen of India (Including disabled) on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex
or place of birth.
• Article 15(2): It states that no citizen (including the disabled) shall be
subjected to any disability, liability, restriction or condition on any of the above
grounds in the matter of their access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and
places of public entertainment or in the use of wells, tanks, bathing places
(ghats), roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of
government funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.
• Article 17: No person including the disabled irrespective of his belonging
can be treated as an untouchable. It would be an offence
punishable in accordance with law.
• Article 21: Every person including the disabled has his life and
liberty guaranteed.
• Article 23: There can be no traffic in human beings
(including the disabled), and beggar and other forms of
forced labor is prohibited and the same is made
punishable in accordance with law.
• Article 29(2): The right to education is available to all
citizens including the disabled. No citizen shall be denied
admission into any educational institution maintained by
the State or receiving aid out of state funds.
• Article 32: Every disabled person can move the Supreme
Court of India to enforce his fundamental rights and the
rights to move the Supreme Court.
Acts for Disability
1. The Rehabilitation Council of India Act 1992
2. The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
protection of Rights and full Participation) Act 1995
3. The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism,
Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple
Disabilities Act 1999
4. National Policy for Persons with Disabilities
5. The Disability and Rehabilitation WHO Action Plan 2006 –
2011.
1. The Rehabilitation Council
of India Act 1992:
Opportunities, protection of
Rights and full Participation)
Act 1995:
• This act provides 3% reservations for disabled people( blind or low vision, hearing
impairment and locomotor disability or cerebral palsy in poverty alleviation programs,
government posts, and in state educational facilities, as well as other rights and
entitlement).
• The specific objectives of the Act are: Prevention and Early Detection of Disabilities,
Education – all Government educational institutions reserves more than 3% seats for
disabled, Employment – with 3% reservations the disability vacancies not filled up to be
carried forward for next three years and after that the vacancy will be filled by a non-
disabled person.
• Schemes for ensuring employment of person with disabilities are: Training and
welfare, Relaxation of upper age limit, Regulating the employment, Health and safety
measures.
Affirmative Action – Preferential allotment of land for
certain purpose – government or local authorities for:
• House; Setting up business;
• Setting up special recreation centers;
• Establishment of special school;
• Establishment of research centers;
• Establishment of factories by entrepreneurs with
disability.
Criticism of Person with Disabilities
Act 1995:
• This Act that is related to mental illness (MI) and provides recommendations aimed at
making it an official instrument for equal opportunities, participation and protection of
rights Act in its true sense.
• The Act defines a disabled person as one who is “suffering from 40% or more disability”.
However, as far as MI is concerned, this quantification is a mystification because such a
tool is unavailable.
• The PWD Act unfortunately, turns out to be an instrument of injustice and discrimination
albeit unwittingly.
• According to the chairperson of the Amendments Committee, MI missed this opportunity
for employment rights because of the absence of a well-informed advocacy platform that
coalesced into a lobby.
Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,
Mental Retardation and Multiple
Disabilities Act 1999:
• This Act provides for the constitution of a national body for the Welfare of Persons
with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
• The main objectives are:
1. To enable and empower persons with disability to live as independently and as
fully as possible within and as close to the community to which they belong;
2. To strengthen facilities to provide support to persons with disability to live within
their own families;
3. To extend support to registered organization to provide need based services
during the period of crises in the family of persons with disability;
4. To deal with problems of persons with disability who do not have
family support.
4. National Policy for Persons
with Disabilities Act 2005:
• The National Policy, released in February 2006 recognizes that Persons with
Disabilities are valuable human resource for the country and seeks to create an
environment that provides them equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full
participation in society.
• Its aim is to ensure better coordination between various wings of the State and
Central Governments.
• The focus of the policy is on the following:
Prevention of Disabilities,
Rehabilitation Measures,
Physical Rehabilitation Strategies,
Early Detection and Intervention,
Counselling & Medical Rehabilitation.
• In addition to the legal framework, extensive infrastructure has been developed
in India for disabled persons under this Act and includes the establishment of
the following institutions:
Institute for the Physically Handicapped, New Delhi,
National Institute of Visually Handicapped, Dehradun,
National Institute for Orthopedically Handicapped, Kolkata,
National Institute for Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabad,
National Institute for Hearing Handicapped, Mumbai,
National Institute of Rehabilitation Training & Research, Cuttack,
National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities, Chennai.
• A 2004 survey in India revealed the following:
Limited information on the definition of disability;
Limited information on access to education to disabled people;
No mention on disability in the Indian constitution;
No standardized sign language.
Rehabilitation WHO Action
Plan 2006-2011:
• Document provides the overview of WHO’s future plan of activities, which will
be carried out or coordinated by the Disability and Rehabilitation team located
in the Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, in the Noncommunicable
Diseases and Mental Health.
• Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in pursuance of the provisions of
Section 32 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of
Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, had constituted an Expert Committee
on the 30th December, 2010 under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary,
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The Expert Committee, with the help of three sub-committees, made an in-depth
study of various jobs performed in Government of India Ministries/Departments,
public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies including Universities.
CONCESSIONS FOR THE
DISABLED
• EDUCATION: Children education allowance and Scheme of
integrated education for the disables children
• FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO PWD
• TRAVEL CONCESSION: By Rail and By Air
• EMPLOYMENT OF HANDICAPPED
• COMMUNICATION
• CONVEYANCE ALLOWANCE
• MISCELLANEOUS PROGRAMMES: Family pension to disabled
children and Ad – hoc Allotment of central pool residential
accommodation to the physically handicapped employees
1. EDUCATION
A) Children’s educational allowance:
The reimbursement of tuition fee in respect of physically handicapped
and mentally retarded children of the Central Government employee
has been enhanced from Rs.50/- to Rs.100/- per month.
B) Scheme of integrated education for the disabled children:
Under the scheme, handicapped children are sought to be integrated in
the normal school system.
100% assistance is provided to the States/ UTs for education of children
suffering from certain mild handicaps in common schools
with the help of necessary aids,
incentives and specially trained teachers.
2. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO
PWD
• The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation
NHFDC, a subsidiary under the Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment, Government of India, promotes infrastructure
development schemes directly leading to income generation.
• This corporation provides self employment opportunities to the
persons with disabilities by providing loans at very low rates of
interest.
3. TRAVEL CONCESSION
A) BY RAIL:
Orthopedically handicapped persons / mentally retarded persons
with an escort, on production of a medical certificate, are eligible to
75% concession.
B) BY AIR:
Locomotors disabled persons with 80% disability are
allowed 50% concession in Indian Airlines.
4. EMPLOYMENT OF
HANDICAPPED
• Assistance to disabled persons in getting gainful
employment either through special cells in National
Employment Exchanges or through Special Employment
Exchanges for physically handicapped.
• Up to 100% financial assistance is provided in the case of
special cells and 80% in the case of Special Employment
Exchanges to state governments / union territory
administrations.
5. COMMUNICATION
• Educated unemployed persons are eligible for
allotment of STD, PCOs. The educational
qualifications for the applicants are 8th or middle
class passed from rural areas, at least
matriculation or high school for urban areas.
6. CONVEYANCE ALLOWANCE
Orthopedically handicapped with disability of lower extremities will
be paid transport allowance at double the normal rates.
Handicapped employees who have been provided with government
accommodation within a distance of 1 km from the place of work or
within the campus, the allowance shall be admissible at normal
rates.
7. MISCELLANEOUS PROGRAMS
A) FAMILY PENSION TO DISABLED CHILDREN:
Handicapped children shall be eligible for the benefit of family pension
even if they have been born after the retirement of the Government
Servant from a marriage solemnized after retirement.
B) AD – HOC ALLOTMENT OF CENTRAL POOL RESIDENTIAL
ACCOMODATION TO THE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED EMPLOYEES:
Government employees suffering from tuberculosis, cancer and
physically handicapped persons may get adhoc allotment
of general pool residential accommodation on request
after recommendation of the special
recommendation committee and on the approval of the urban
development ministry.
CERTIFICATION IN DISABILITY
• The medical boards have been constituted at the State level,
District level and Taluk level to assess the percentage of disability /
the level of disability/ and then to issue disability certificates
whose disability is more than 40% and above.
• The composition of the Medical Board is as follows:
State Level Medical Board,
District Level Medical Board,
Taluk Level Medical Board.
• According to the PWD Rules, 1996, the Committee recommended
that certification of disability for the purposes of the Act had to be
carried out by a medical board comprising of the following
members:
(a) The Medical Superintendent/ Principal/Director/Head of the
institution or his nominee Chairperson,
(b) (b) Psychiatrist—Member,
(c) (c) Physician — Member.
• At least two of the members, including Chairperson of the board
must be present and sign the disability certificate.
• The certificate would be valid for a period of five years for those
whose disability is ‘temporary’ and are below the age 18 years.
• For those who acquire permanent disability, the validity can be shown as
permanent’ in the certificate.
• When there are no chances of variation in the degree of disability, a
permanent disability certificate is given.
• The PWD Act (1995) did not prescribe guidelines for evaluation and
assessment of mental illness and the specific procedures for
certification.
• With regard to assessment of disability related to mental illness it was
agreed that the Indian Disability Evaluation and Assessment Scale
(IDEAS, 2002) developed by the Rehabilitation Committee of the Indian
Psychiatric Society (IPS) through a Task Force should
be used with modifications for the purposes of the Act.
UNITED NATIONS STANDARD
RULES ON PWD
• Preconditions for equal participation
Rule 1 Awareness-raising
Rule 2 Medical care
Rule 3 Rehabilitation
Rule 4 Support services
• Target areas for equal participation
Rule 5 Accessibility
Rule 6 Education
Rule 7 Employment
Rule 8 Income maintenance and social security
Rule 9 Family life and personal integrity
Rule 10 Culture
Rule 11 Recreation and sport
Rule 12 Religion
• Implementation measures
Rule 13 Information and research
Rule 14 Policy-making and planning
Rule 15 Legislation
Rule 16 Economic policies
Rule 17 Coordination of Work
Rule 18 Organizations of persons with disabilities
Rule 19 Personnel training
Rule 20 National monitoring and evaluation of disability programmes
in the implementation of the Rules
Rule 21 Technical and economic cooperation
Rule 22 International cooperation
CONCLUSION
• Person with disability are the poorest of the poor and weakest of the weak, who have
been socially, educationally and economically disadvantaged; thus having
customarily denied their right to self-assertion, identity and development.
• Impairment – refers to the loss or abnormality of psychological, physical, or
anatomical structure or function at the system or organ level that may or may not be
permanent and that may or may not result in disability.
• Disability – refers to an individual limitation or restriction of an activity as the result
of impairment.
• Handicap – refers to the disadvantage to the individual resulting from an impairment
or disability that presents a barrier to fulfilling a role or reaching a goal.
• In order to give statutory powers to the Council for carrying out its
duties effectively the Rehabilitation Council of India Act was passed
by the Parliament which came into force with effect
from 1993.
