People with Disabilities in India: From Commitment to Outcomes

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CHAPTER 7: POLICIES AND INSTITUTIONS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN INDIA 7.1. The socio-economic profile of PWD and insights into community attitudes provided in previous chapters suggest that there remain major challenges at several levels in realizing the rights of PWD in India. This chapter explores the policy and institutional framework for promoting full participation of PWD in society. 175 Overall, India has one of the more developed national policy frameworks for disability of developing countries, though there remains scope for improvement, in particular at the sub-national level. However, as in many areas of social policy, challenges of institutional capacity and coordination have contributed to implementation that frequently leaves much to be desired. The intersection of policy and institutions is therefore critical to understanding the factors that drive current outcomes for PWD and might contribute to improving them. 7.2. While the primary focus on institutional discussion in the chapter is public institutions, it is clear that non-public actors are particularly important in the disability field relative to other areas of social policy. These include persons with disabilities themselves, NGOs, DPOs, community-based groups such as SHGs or CBR groups, the private sector, and households. While there is a clear need for improvement in the functioning of public institutions dealing with disability, there is equally – perhaps even more importantly – a need for deepening synergies between the public sector and non-public actors, in particular disabled people. A. Policies for disability in India 7.3 India has a long experience of policy and practice with respect to disability, including collection of census information on disability from as early as 1872, and special schools and institutions operating since the 19 th century. Like many countries, it also had specific provision for people with mental illness and retardation under the Indian Lunacy Act of 1912. The Constitution of India acknowledged also general state obligations to PWD in Article 41, and the State List under “Relief of the disabled and unemployable”. Subsequently, specific measures such as employment concessions were introduced from the 1960s. 176 However, it was not until the 1980s that policy commitment to full participation of PWD in Indian society evolved. The outcomes of this policy shift were realized in several key pieces of legislation 177 : (i) the Mental Health Act, 1987; (ii) the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (PWD Act); (iii) the Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 and amended in 2000 (RCI Act); and (iv) the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 (National Trust Act). The cornerstone among these is the PWD Act, which is discussed in the following section. 175 The chapter has benefited from background papers by Bhambani (2006) and Officer (2005). See also Baquer and Sharma (1997), Erb and Harriss-White (2002), Mani (1988), and Harriss-White (1996). 176 See Harriss-White, op.cit. 177 Policy was also strongly influenced by international developments, including the Asia and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2202) and the UNESCAP Biwako Millennium Framework for Action, which recommitted Asia-Pacific countries to “promote the goals of an inclusive, barrier-free and rightsbased society for persons with disabilities” during the period 2003-2012. -123-
7.4 (a) The Persons with Disabilities Act: The main provisions of the PWD Act are outlined in Box 7.1. It seems clear that the Act is informed by approaches beyond a pure medical model, in that many aspects of PWD lives are addressed, including societal attitudes. At the same time, the direct linkage in the Act between definitions of disability and entitlements necessitates a definition of disability which derives from threshold levels of physical and mental impairment which are defined in a largely medical sense. While the philosophy of the Act therefore represents a major step forward in disability policy in India, its underlying philosophy can be considered a hybrid between medical and social models of disability. 7.5 Broadly, the entitlements and commitments towards PWD under the Act can be divided into two main groups: (i) entitlements which are absolute and thus in nature of legal rights. Some of these existed as rights prior to the Act but were reiterated or strengthened in the Act itself (and have in some cases been refined subsequently); and (ii) commitments that are given either in rather general terms or with the explicit proviso “within the limits of [governments’] economic capacity and development”. These can be described as “contingent entitlements” under the Act and are not unqualified rights. The division is not entirely clearcut, as subsequent jurisprudence has in some cases strengthened general commitments. 178 In a number of cases, follow-up action is also anticipated by states or other relevant authorities. 7.6 Despite the PWD Act being a ground-breaking piece of legislation, there remain a number of policy shortcomings in its design that are worth highlighting. These include both general issues which apply to several areas of the Act, and others which relate to specific sectoral heads. A number of them were raised by GoI’s own Amendment Committee in 1999, but have not subsequently found their way onto GoI’s agenda. 179 7.7 (i) General Policy Issues in PWD Act: Some of the cross-cutting policy issues with respect to the PWD Act include: • the Act covers only designated groups of PWD, which is by no means completely inclusive of categories of disability. This is in part driven by the linkage in the Act between the relevant legal definition of disability and the entitlements under the Act that flow from that. There is a natural reluctance on the part of policymakers to commit to entitlements for a wide group in the face of limited financial and other resources. Nonetheless, there is no reason in principle why the definitional and entitlement aspects of the Act need be completely synchronized. Providing for a more inclusive definition of disability while retaining more restrictive entitlements by disability type has been proposed by the Amendment Committee for the PWD Act. 180 The Committee proposed expansion of the Act’s definition of disabilities to include multiple disability, autism, thalassemia, haemophilia, filiariasis, cerebral palsy and moderate/severe speech impairment. It also provided a more precise definition of mental illness, which in the current Act is vaguely defined as “any mental disorder other than mental retardation”. These proposals seem eminently sensible. On the latter point, amendments to the Act proposed by the Ministry in 2006 also represent a step forward in trying to have a more workable definition of mental illness. 181 178 Human Rights Law Network (2005). 179 See Amendment Committee report, 1999. The recent draft National Policy for PWD also acknowledges the desirability of a number of the amendments proposed by the Committee (see below). 180 See Amendment Committee report, op.cit. 181 The proposed revised definition is “...disorder of the mind that results in partial or complete disturbance in the person’s thinking, feeling and behaviour which very often results in recurrent or persistent inability or reduced ability to carry out activities of daily living, self care, education, employment and participation in social life. See Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GoI website. -124-
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PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN INDIA:
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Abbreviations and Acronyms ADL ANM
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Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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Figure 5.3: Employment rates of PWD
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Box 5.4: A Jobs Fair Bringing Emplo
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NGOs, both quantitative and qualita
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Out of school rates for CWD are hig
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needs to respond more proactively t
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government strategies for promoting
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Safety Net Schemes 33. Safety nets
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40. In early 2006, a National Polic
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should move to implement the Act’
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54. Addressing current and future p
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disability SHGs, which has been sho
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have comparative advantage is putti
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extent of individual functioning du
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converting income into well-being o
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21. In light of the challenges that
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not be explained by this. The major
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Table 1.2: Disability Prevalence ra
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The share of disability impact due
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• It is also important to recall
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1.17. A second issue with obvious i
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Figure 1.9: Employment rates of PWD
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Box 1.2: Census questions on disabi
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Box 2.1: Disability in Indian mytho
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• overall, there is low acceptanc
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Table 2.2: Positive perceptions of
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different areas, as for example the
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governmental sectors drive home the
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Box 2.4: Raising awareness and chan
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• onset of mental disabilities is
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3.9. Locomotor disability is the ca
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B. Prevention of Disability 3.15. A
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3.20. The NBCP, like other vertical
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almost three times more likely to h
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PWDs. The scheme operates in 11 cen
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Figure 3.4: Proportion of disabled
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Table 3.11: Type of Service Accesse
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Urban 1.46 North 1.40 South 1.10 Ea
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Box 3.1: WHO’s “Ten Question Pl
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3.51. (f) Financial barriers to acc
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including for road accidents, and e
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A. Indian and International Policy
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4.9. A specific feature of SSA is a
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• significant gender differential
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Out of school rates for CWD are hig
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Only around 5 percent of children w
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4.30. (b) Financial performance of
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only factor contributing to both po
Page 101 and 102: The numbers of CWD identified by SS
Page 103 and 104: IE training options. The impacts of
Page 105 and 106: part of the authorities to increase
Page 107 and 108: well beyond the needs of CWD alone.
Page 109 and 110: performance in the schooling system
Page 111 and 112: DLROs has contributed to West Benga
Page 113 and 114: CHAPTER 5: EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS WI
Page 115 and 116: atios, while others such as J&K, Bi
Page 117 and 118: Figure 5.8: Employment rates over t
Page 119 and 120: • the relative wages of PWD to no
Page 121 and 122: of age and disability status. Multi
Page 123 and 124: 5.23. For males in the survey, a de
Page 125 and 126: equirement of specific post identif
Page 127 and 128: 5.34. Nonetheless, there has been u
Page 129 and 130: consistent with survey findings. Na
Page 131 and 132: exchanges are in any event servicin
Page 133 and 134: Source: NHFDC website reporting cum
Page 135 and 136: Box 5.5: Good practice in NGO skill
Page 137 and 138: D. Conclusions and recommendations
Page 139 and 140: is set. In the case of SGSY, the gu
Page 141 and 142: Table 6.2: States/UTs with unemploy
Page 143 and 144: Table 6.4: Coverage of disability s
Page 145 and 146: Table 6.6: Contributions and benefi
Page 147 and 148: 6.24. Easily the largest scheme for
Page 149 and 150: 6.35. While the design of the insur
Page 151: people. The transfer under NOAPS wa
Page 155 and 156: 7.8 (ii) Sectoral policy issues in
Page 157 and 158: • in the area of education, the p
Page 159 and 160: awareness raising about disability
Page 161 and 162: more formal institutions in disabil
Page 163 and 164: 7.28 There is little detailed analy
Page 165 and 166: Table 7.2: Institutions providing b
Page 167 and 168: systematically related to the numbe
Page 169 and 170: • collaboration between NGOs and
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Page 173 and 174: CHAPTER 8: ACCESS FOR PEOPLE WITH D
Page 175 and 176: Box 8.1: International and regional
Page 177 and 178: The comparison of institutional arr
Page 179 and 180: laudable, there are concerns that m
Page 181 and 182: ANNEX 1: COMPARING THE INCOMPARABLE
Page 183 and 184: of prevalence estimates across the
Page 185 and 186: person will be treated as having
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People with Disabilities in India: From Commitment to Outcomes

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