Remember ME - You Me and Dementia

Monday, March 29, 2010

India needs new legislation on Disability Rights

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of the Government of India has been holding national consultative meetings on proposed amendments to the Persons with Disabilities Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation Act (PWD Act). Meetings have been held in Delhi, Guwahati and most recently in Kolkata on March 13, 2010. The debate centres on whether there should be amendments to the existing law, or whether there should be a new law.

The Persons with Disabilities Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation Act, (PWD Act) of 1995 had heralded a new dawn in the lives of disabled people in India. For the first time in the history of independent India, a separate law had been formulated which talked about the multiple needs of disabled people. Very soon, though, activists as well as disabled people felt that the law had too many loopholes. However, this Act did help disabled people to come together, forming groups as they started making demands to implement this law.

To the delight of disability groups, India ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Disability Convention) in October 2007. This Convention marks a formal shift from the archaic medical model to the social model, and promotes the rights of people living with disabilities. Article 1 encapsulates the overall objective of the Convention which is “to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.”

The Convention recognises that persons with disability are right-holders instead of passive recipients of government schemes. In contrast, the PWD Act has a different foundation. The PWD Act was enacted in order to implement the Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities, an instrument that did not expressly recognise rights, but laid emphasis on the need to eliminate physical and social barriers so as to promote the participation of people living with disabilities. The PWD Act, thus, does not internalise any of the core principles that form the bedrock of the Disability Convention.


Retain or recast?

There is a definite need to review the existing legislative framework in India to examine whether it adequately promotes the rights contained in the Convention. The Disability Convention imposes two key legislative obligations: (1) to ensure that the rights contained in the Convention are realised and (2) to ensure that existing laws and practices that are discriminatory towards people living with disabilities are repealed or amended to bring them in line with the Convention.

Since its ratification by India, there has been much discussion of the manner in which Indian laws must be modified or harmonised to give effect to the obligations under the Convention. While the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MOSJE) has proposed 108 amendments to the PWD Act including 50 new provisions, the Disabled Rights Group (DRG) led by Javed Abidi has unequivocally stated that the PWD Act has served its time and that there is a need for a new law.

Consultations on this issue at national and zonal levels are going on throughout India right now. Advocate Kanchan Pamnani, who is blind herself, says that the old law will need more than 300 amendments to make it suitable to our times, and obviously it is better to frame a new one than make 300 changes in the old one. Shukla Bhadury, mother of two disabled children agrees. She says it is ridiculous that government is even considering so many amendments. “Even in the amendments, punitive actions are not mentioned,” comments Sritama, a law student and member of Campaigners for Inclusion. “Any law without punitive action will not work in this country,” she says.

Let’s examine the differences between the Disability Convention and the present PWD Act to see why such passionate pleas to repeal this law are coming from all quarters.


Purpose

It is clear from the objectives of the Convention that civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights stand on the same footing and that the state must make efforts to realise both. The PWD Act barely provides for civil and political rights and the amendments proposed by the MOSJE, too, neglect these rights.


Construction of disability

The PWD Act adopts a narrow definition of disability and confines it to “blindness; low vision; leprosy-cured; hearing impairment; locomotor disability; mental retardation; and mental illness”. As opposed to this, the Disability Convention recognises that “disability is an evolving concept” and avoids listing specific conditions and severities and broadly casts “persons with disabilities” to “include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”


Foundational principles (Article 3)

The core human rights principles stated in Article 3 of the Disability Convention are respect for inherent dignity and individual autonomy; non-discrimination, full and effective participation and inclusion; respect for difference; equality of opportunity; accessibility, gender equality; respect for the evolving capacity of children with disabilities and their right to preserve their identities.” These general principles have been well etched in several provisions of the Convention.

The amendments proposed by the MOSJE merely replicate Article 3 without incorporating the provisions which further the principles such as those relating to civil and political rights, rights of women and girls with disabilities, and several other rights stated below.


Extent of application (Article 4(1)(e))

The Disability Convention requires the state to address discrimination on the basis of disability even in the private sector. The amendments proposed to the chapter on discrimination fail to expressly prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability or spell out the consequences for the same.


Recognised rights

The Disability Convention expressly recognises the following rights:

  1. Right to equality and non-discrimination. It also recognises the need to provide for reasonable accommodation in order to further the right to equality.
  2. Right of women and girls with disabilities to full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
  3. Right of children with disabilities to full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. A child’s right to express views on matters affecting him/her is also recognised.
  4. Right to access to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, in urban and rural areas.
  5. Right to life.
  6. Right to protection and safety in situations of risk, armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies, and natural disasters.
  7. Right to recognition before law. The right to legal capacity is also included.
  8. Right to access justice with procedural and age-appropriate accommodations.
  9. Right to liberty and security of person.
  10. Right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
  11. Protection from exploitation, violation and abuse, gender-based and otherwise.
  12. Right to respect for physical and mental integrity.
  13. Right to freedom of movement and the right to acquire and change a nationality.
  14. Right to live in the community and choose place of residence.
  15. Right to freedom of expression.
  16. Right to privacy.
  17. Right to marry and found a family.
  18. Right to retain fertility and other reproductive rights.
  19. Right to education.
  20. Right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health.
  21. Prohibition on discrimination on the basis of disability in employment.
  22. Right to an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing, and housing.
  23. Right to participate in political and public life including the right to vote and to be elected.
  24. Right to participate in cultural life


While most of the above rights can be gleaned from the Indian Constitution, a glance at the existing PWD Act shows that it can hardly be termed a rights-based legislation. It recognises only the right to education, provides for reservations in employment and for half-hearted measures to reduce physical barriers. It also prohibits establishments from discriminating against an employee because of his/her disability.

These abovementioned rights must be codified in the form of a statute that is more likely to be invoked by people living with disabilities and can also be used to ensure that the state fulfils its obligations towards each of the rights. The amendments proposed by the MOSJE fail to provide for a majority of civil and political rights such as the right to recognition before law, right to privacy, right to marry, right against torture etc. Discrimination has been addressed only in transport and in-built environment. Clause 46A (2) of the proposed amendments leaves it to the government to frame ‘policies’ to ensure equal access to education, health, employment and other public services. It fails to expressly prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability.

Further, the rights that appear in the PWD Act do not measure up to the standards set out in the Convention. For instance, Sections 44-46 of the PWD Act require establishments and the government to take “special measures” to enable people with disabilities to gain better access to public transport, buildings, and roads. However, such measures could be undertaken only if it were “within the limits of their economic capacity”. A mere deletion of these words without fleshing out how rights may be realised will be unfruitful.

Without a strong implementation mechanism, the few rights that have been added on will be deprived of meaning. For instance, the Act empowers the Disability Commissioner to “recommend” necessary action to appropriate authorities in order to address “deprivation of rights”. This recommendation is of no binding value and the authority can reject it thus rendering the office of the Commissioner toothless as before.


Conclusion

The PWD Act will require a complete overhaul. The Act must be recast to comprehensively provide for all the rights recognised under the Convention. In a letter to the minister of social justice and empowerment, (http://uncrpdandlaw.nileshsingit.org/blog/letter-to-hon-ble-minister-for-social-justice-and-empowerment) the Disability Rights Group has said that the amendments proposed by the ministry do not mirror the rights-based framework of the Convention. In the past, the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986, was re-enacted in the form of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 to give effect to India’s obligation under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Involvement of stakeholders is inherent in a rights-based approach and their exclusion will be discordant with the soul and spirit of the Disability Convention. The form that the harmonisation should take must be thoroughly discussed and debated in consultation with various stakeholders and the government cannot afford to take the decision unilaterally.

With strong voices rising from within the disability sector, can the state remain inattentive to this demand? “It’s the decision of our lives, and we will not allow a few officers in the ministry to force down their opinion on us anymore, whatever comes,” says Rajarshi Chakrobarti, secretary of Swabalamban, a West Bengal-based organisation with more than 1,500 disabled members.


Source: http://infochangeindia.org/201003228194/Disabilities/Analysis/India-needs-new-legislation-on-Disability-Rights.html


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

India’s ‘missing women’ highest in Asia-Pacific: UNDP report

India has the highest number of women dying because of discriminatory treatment in access to healthcare and nutrition, sex-selective abortions and infanticide, in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, 42.7 million Indian females died for these reasons, says the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-sponsored 2010 Asia-Pacific Human Development Report launched on March 8, 2010. Titled ‘Voice and Rights: A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific’, the report focuses on gender equality.

The UNDP terms these “missing women” and India and China account for more than 80 million such women. This seriously skews the sex ratio. A March 4, 2010 article in The Economist said that in China and northern India more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls, and this goes up to 130 boys in some provinces in China.

“It is no exaggeration to call this ‘gendercide’. Women are missing in their millions --aborted, killed, neglected to death. In 1990, Indian economist Amartya Sen put the number at 100 million; the toll is higher now,” The Economist says.

Women comprise 51% of the population in most regions worldwide, yet they account for only 49% of the total population in Asia-Pacific, the UNDP report adds. In India, women account for 48.2 % of the population, the worst figure in the South Asia region, with Pakistan marginally better off at 48.5%, Bangladesh at 48.8% and Nepal and Sri Lanka at 50.4% and 50.5% respectively.

The report says there is a wide disparity between male and female child mortality rates in India: 72 per 1,000 male children under the age of 5, compared to 81 per 1,000 female children.

Lack of women’s participation in the workforce costs the region billions of dollars every year. In countries such as India, Indonesia and Malaysia, conservative estimates show that GDP would increase by up to 2-4% annually if women’s employment rates were raised to 70%, closer to the rate of many developed countries.

Fewer women than men are in paid work in every country in the region, with striking contrasts between South Asia and East Asia. Nearly 70% of East Asian women are in paid work, well above the global average of 53%, in countries such as Cambodia, China, and Vietnam, for example. In South Asian countries like India and Pakistan, fewer than 35% of women do paid work.

Despite laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, women in this region still earn considerably less than men, with the pay gap ranging from 54% to 90%. Women “consistently end up with some of the worst, most poorly-paid jobs -- often the ones that men don’t want to do, or that are assumed to be “naturally” suited to women,” the report found.

The Asia-Pacific region includes China, Mongolia, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Bhutan, Kiribati, Maldives, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, and Myanmar.


Source:http://infochangeindia.org/201003138190/Women/News/India-s-missing-women-highest-in-Asia-Pacific-UNDP-report.html


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Samaritan Help Mission: “We go by need not by creed”

Samaritan Help Mission (SHM) is a Voluntary, not for profit organization based in Tikipara Slum of Howrah (West Bengal) in India predominantly having 80% Muslim Population, established in 1991 committed for the emancipation and empowerment of poor Children who are been involved in various nefarious activities and Women who lack opportunities to join the main stream of life through education and vocational training.

MISSION

To prevent the exploitation of poor slum children, specially girls, by anti-social elements by providing them opportunity for quality education - from Pre-Nursery to high school and vocational training. Also higher education and health facilities so that they develop into healthy, hardworking, broadminded, intelligent, compassionate, citizens who rise above the narrow considerations of caste, creed, community, religion, region or language and help build a strong nation.


OUR OBJECTIVES

SHM’s avowed objective is to empower the underprivileged and disadvantaged members of the society through awareness and education training and generating employment opportunity for the deprived women and girls, also to provide better health care to the children and women and motivate the mostly Muslim women through awareness for family planning.


BRIEF HISTORY

It was the passionate appeal of a child 1991, wanting to go to the school that prompted the founder of this project Mamoon Akhtar to start teaching 5-6 children in his own house. As the residents of the area became aware of this “school” more and more children started coming and there was no place to seat them. Mamoon constructed a room on his own small plot of land (600 sq.ft.) and the one room SHM School was born with 25 young eager children flocking to it. Mamoon rose to the occasion and went from door to door to raise Rs.28,000 p.a. (in addition to their own contribution of Rs.10,000).



OUR WORKS:


SAMARITAN MISSION SCHOOL


VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROJECT


SAMARITAN MICRO-CREDIT PROGRAM.


SAMARITAN HEALTH CARE & AWARENESS CENTRE



COMPUTER LITERACY PROJECT


TIFFIN PROGRAM FOR THE POOR SHM CHILDREN,




Contact:

Samaritan Help Mission,
125, Noor Md Munshi Lane Howrah-711101 West Bengal
(o) 91-33-26381900 Mob:- 09836777600
Email:- shm.mamoon@gmail.com
Website: http://www.samaritanhelpmission.org/

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.