People with Disabilities in India: From Commitment to Outcomes

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Box 7.1: Key entitlements and commitments under the PWD Act, 1995 The PWD Act has both binding entitlements and more general commitments. The key provisions are: Education: The following are binding on Government (i.e. not subject to economic factors): • Governments shall ensure that every CWD has access to free education “in an appropriate environment” until the age of eighteen. • Governments “shall initiate or cause to be initiated” research by public and non-governmental agencies for development of both assistive devices and special learning materials for CWD in order to promote equal opportunity in education. • Governments shall ensure teacher training that produces “the requisite manpower” for teaching of CWD both in special schools and integrated settings. • all public educational institutions and other receiving aid from Government shall reserved not less than 3 percent of seats for PWD (i.e. for PWD over 18 years). • government should prepare a “comprehensive education scheme” for CWD which includes transport or financial incentives, barrier free access, supply of book, uniforms and learning materials to CWD, adjusts the examination system as necessary, adapts curriculum for CWD. Employment: The Government shall: • identify posts for PWD in public establishments and update the list every three years. • reserve not less than 3 percent of identified posts for PWD, with 1 percentage point reserved for people with blindness/low vision, hearing impairment, locomotor disability or cerebral palsy respectively (though any department or establishment can be exempted by notification).. • every employer should have a record of all PWD employed in that establishment. • Governments and local authorities shall formulate schemes for promotion of employment of PWD which may provide for training of PWD, relaxation of age limits in employment, measures related to OHS, provisions for financing such schemes etc. • Reservation of not less than 3 percent in all poverty alleviation schemes. • “within the limits of their economic capacity and development”, Governments shall provide incentives to both public and private sectors for employment of PWD with a target of at least 5 percent of their workforce to be PWD. Prevention and early detection of disabilities: All commitments in this area are given with the proviso “within the limits of their economic capacity and development”. With proviso, Governments should: • Undertake surveys on causes of disability. • Promote “various methods” for preventing disabilities. • Screen children at least once a year for identifying at-risk cases. • Provide facilities for training PHC staff. • Conduct or sponsor awareness campaigns on hygiene, health and sanitation, and on causes and prevention of disabilities. • “take measures” for pre-, peri- and post-natal care of mother and child. Affirmative Action: Governments shall frame schemes for: • Provision of aids and appliances to PWD • Preferential allotment of land for housing, business, recreation centres, special schools, research centres, and factories run by PWD entrepreneurs. Non-discrimination in access: All commitments in this area are given with the proviso “within the limits of their economic capacity and development”. With proviso, Governments should: • Adapt all forms of transport to make them accessible to PWD. • Provide for a variety of assistive devices in the built environment, including auditory signals, ramps in public buildings and health facilities, Braille signage, accessible curbing, marked zebra and railway crossings, warning signals as appropriate etc. -127-
• in the area of education, the proposed revisions aim to give a more specific obligation to states and local authorities to develop IE strategies and schemes. This increases consistency with initiatives under the lead of MHRD. • other sectors such as employment attempt to spell out more precise obligations of employers and mandates of institutions. However, it is not clear how the proposed revisions will result in more effective functioning of actors such as Special Employment Exchanges. • strengthened provisions on regular gathering of data on the socio-economic status of PWD. 7.10 (iii) Implementation of the Act: Previous chapters discuss in detail outcomes to date in implementation of the PWD Act. A generic policy question however is the extent to which states or other relevant authorities have met their commitments under the PWD Act to frame state-specific entitlements or schemes. As could be expected, the relative performance of states in this regard exhibits major variations, with some states quite active in framing schemes and trying to strengthen institutions, while others have to a large extent ignored their obligations under the Act for follow-up measures. GoI’s most recent assessment of performance at central and state level indicates that overall implementation performance has been poor, and in a number of areas very poor, with an overall evaluation that the “act is being poorly implemented” eight years after its enactment. 184 7.11 There are a range of institutional reasons which contribute to this outcome and are discussed below. However, there also appears to be more basic questions of relative political commitment between states. Better performance has not simply been a case of better-off versus poorer states, or high versus low capacity states. Some poor states (e.g. Chhattisgarh) have made serious efforts to elaborate their policy commitments. However, CAG in 2004 identified a number of states in most areas of the Act which had taken no action to fulfill their obligations as of end-2003. These include prevention and early detection of disabilities (where even large states such as Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand and HP had taken no action in the 8 years following the Act), several elements of education, employment (where several states had failed to identify any posts for PWD), affirmative action, and provision to promote access of PWD. 7.12 (iv) Awareness of the PWD Act: A key ingredient of effective implementation is awareness. A decade after this landmark legislation, what is the level of awareness of both the Act and specific entitlements under it ? Recent survey evidence from villages in TN and UP gives some insights. Overall, awareness of the PWD Act in the states studied remains very low, and lower among households with PWDs than those without them. This is shown in Table 7.1. Only around 4 and 7 percent of PWD HHs in UP and TN respectively were at all aware of the Act, and around 8 and 9 percent of non-PWD households. Among those who were at all aware of the Act, the share who were very familiar with the Act was also low, particularly among PWD households. Table 7.1: Awareness of the PWD Act is very low and lower among PWD households than others UP PWD HH UP non-PWD HH TN PWD HH TN non-PWD HH Aware 4.1% 7.5% 6.8% 8.9% o/w very 6.3% 26.1% 7.4% 11.1% familiar Not Aware 95.9% 92.5% 93.2% 91.1% Source: UP and TN Village Survey (2005). 184 CAG (2004). -128-
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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
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The numbers of CWD identified by SS
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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 and 152: people. The transfer under NOAPS wa
Page 153 and 154: 7.4 (a) The Persons with Disabiliti
Page 155: 7.8 (ii) Sectoral policy issues in
Page 159 and 160: awareness raising about disability
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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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