People with Disabilities in India: From Commitment to Outcomes

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that not all disabled people may be supported through public interventions, this does not seem a good reason to exclude them from inclusion as PWD under the Act. Legislation and policy should ensure that clear obligations for involvement of persons with disabilities themselves at all stages of policy development, implementation and monitoring. Second, MSJE and central and state Commissioners’ offices should develop programs in collaboration with DPOs and NGOs for awareness raising of officials, service providers, PRI representatives and communities on programs for people with disabilities. A periodic monitoring of awareness, with particular focus on lagging states and remote regions, should be put in place to assess impact. States should be strongly encouraged to develop their own disability policies which elaborate a credible strategy for meeting their commitments under the PWD and other acts. The example of Chhattisgarh offers a useful example of such a policy. Finally, there should be a process for basic benchmarking of feasible policies and programs for people with disabilities in the areas which are currently subject to the economic capacity proviso. 69. Institutional reforms would seem desirable in several directions: First, the institutional framework at all levels needs to have a substantially strengthened direct role for persons with disabilities themselves. Second, responsibility for specific programs for PWD should be brought clearly under relevant line Ministries in some cases, e.g. bringing all education policies under MHRD as noted above. Third, GoI may like to consider overhauling the current coordinating mechanism into a National Commission for PWD, which would have the status and convening power which is currently under-developed in the sector. It is important that such a body be a coordination and oversight agency, and not be viewed as a separate “silo” for disability. Such an initiative would only make sense if the structural problems of coordination within and between levels of government, and between the public and non-governmental sectors are addressed. It would also require a transition strategy if the current Commissioners’ Offices are to be merged into a future Commission, so that there is not simply duplication of responsibilities. In this light, any move towards a Commission should not forestall the urgent need to strengthen the capacity of Commissioners’ Offices to perform their current functions, in particular on grievance redressal. Fourth, the enforcement mechanisms for the Act need to be clarified and strengthened. One option would be a Disability Tribunal with direct enforcement powers. This has pros and cons, as there is a risk of “over-judicializing” the grievance mechanisms for PWD and thus reducing their access. An alternative is obviously strengthening of both central and state Commissioners’ offices to play their grievance redressal function more effectively. A review of human resource and financial capacity of central and state Commissioners’ offices is also needed, and guidelines on minimum staffing levels introduced. The national policy and legislation needs to reflect the growing role of PRIs and use it as an opportunity to extend institutional reach to the village level, and more importantly to increase the local channels for accountability of public and other disability service providers. NGOs should also be brought more actively into both policy and implementation, but with strengthened financial accountability and monitoring of program outcomes. Finally, there needs to be more direct engagement between both public and NGO sectors with PWD themselves and their families, with SHGs being a logical vehicle. Changing Attitudes 70. Changing societal attitudes to people with disabilities, even among people with disabilities themselves, presents many challenges. Changing attitudes to disability is likely to area where it is particularly important for governments to work with people with disabilities, NGO/DPOs, and communities to raise awareness about disabilities in order to help address a number of the demand side challenges in improving outcomes for disabled people. A second important step where media, persons with disabilities, social activists, and NGOs are likely to xxviii
have comparative advantage is putting the experience and success stories of persons with disabilities into the public arena. An important step in this regard is following the guidance offered by people with disabilities in India on interactions with disabled people, as outlined in Chapter 2. Improving accessibility 71. Improvement in accessibility for disabled people is a long run agenda, but several recommendations emerge. Firstly, both national and sub-national policies on promoting access for people with disabilities should be required to include consultation with disabled people in setting priorities, and in monitoring outcomes through access audits and other channels. Secondly, states and/or municipal authorities which have yet to amend their building bye-laws to comply with the 1998 guidelines should be encouraged to do so in the nearest future. These should allow for clear sanctions in case of failure to comply with accessibility standards, and administrative clarity on official accountability in cases of failure to comply. MoSJE in collaboration with Commissioner’s offices, the Ministry of Urban Development and Employment, and the states should also work towards benchmarking minimum national standards of accessibility to which authorities could be held accountable. This will be a necessity under the new UN convention. Thirdly, public funds for the welfare of disabled people should also be used to support research on their access priorities, development of assistive devices for improving mobility of disabled people, implementing cost-effective universal design, and analysis of the impacts and costs of failure to provide accessible environments. Finally, university and inservice training courses for architects, engineers and planners should include exposure to principles and practices of universal design and accessibility as a standard course element. Financing for designated centres of excellence in this area should be made available. Strengthening Measurement and Surveys 72. Improving measurement of disability is critical for understanding the magnitude and scope of the disability issue in India, raising awareness of disability, and helping address disability issues. This is a large agenda, but initial recommendations are: there is a need to harmonize definitions of disability categories across NSS and census. In this process, there is also a need to improve and harmonize the approaches across disability types within each survey (detailed recommendations are in Chapter 1). Revising the NSS disability module for the next dedicated round, in particular improving PWD household consumption information and other welfare indicators, and including other disabilities more explicitly in the survey would help improve measurement. It will also be necessary to incorporate disability questions into mainstream health, education and other surveys to an extent not done to date. This includes the main schedules of NSS, so that more reliable comparisons between the disabled and non-disabled populations on critical indicators like educational attainment and living standards can be made. xxix
Page 1 and 2: PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN INDIA:
Page 3 and 4: Abbreviations and Acronyms ADL ANM
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Page 7 and 8: Figure 5.3: Employment rates of PWD
Page 9 and 10: Box 5.4: A Jobs Fair Bringing Emplo
Page 11 and 12: NGOs, both quantitative and qualita
Page 13 and 14: Out of school rates for CWD are hig
Page 15 and 16: needs to respond more proactively t
Page 17 and 18: government strategies for promoting
Page 19 and 20: Safety Net Schemes 33. Safety nets
Page 21 and 22: 40. In early 2006, a National Polic
Page 23 and 24: should move to implement the Act’
Page 25 and 26: 54. Addressing current and future p
Page 27: disability SHGs, which has been sho
Page 31 and 32: extent of individual functioning du
Page 33 and 34: converting income into well-being o
Page 35 and 36: 21. In light of the challenges that
Page 37 and 38: not be explained by this. The major
Page 39 and 40: Table 1.2: Disability Prevalence ra
Page 41 and 42: The share of disability impact due
Page 43 and 44: • It is also important to recall
Page 45 and 46: 1.17. A second issue with obvious i
Page 47 and 48: Figure 1.9: Employment rates of PWD
Page 49 and 50: Box 1.2: Census questions on disabi
Page 51 and 52: Box 2.1: Disability in Indian mytho
Page 53 and 54: • overall, there is low acceptanc
Page 55 and 56: Table 2.2: Positive perceptions of
Page 57 and 58: different areas, as for example the
Page 59 and 60: governmental sectors drive home the
Page 61 and 62: Box 2.4: Raising awareness and chan
Page 63 and 64: • onset of mental disabilities is
Page 65 and 66: 3.9. Locomotor disability is the ca
Page 67 and 68: B. Prevention of Disability 3.15. A
Page 69 and 70: 3.20. The NBCP, like other vertical
Page 71 and 72: almost three times more likely to h
Page 73 and 74: PWDs. The scheme operates in 11 cen
Page 75 and 76: Figure 3.4: Proportion of disabled
Page 77 and 78: Table 3.11: Type of Service Accesse
Page 79 and 80:
Urban 1.46 North 1.40 South 1.10 Ea
Page 81 and 82:
Box 3.1: WHO’s “Ten Question Pl
Page 83 and 84:
3.51. (f) Financial barriers to acc
Page 85 and 86:
including for road accidents, and e
Page 87 and 88:
A. Indian and International Policy
Page 89 and 90:
4.9. A specific feature of SSA is a
Page 91 and 92:
• significant gender differential
Page 93 and 94:
Out of school rates for CWD are hig
Page 95 and 96:
Only around 5 percent of children w
Page 97 and 98:
4.30. (b) Financial performance of
Page 99 and 100:
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
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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
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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
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consistent with survey findings. Na
Page 131 and 132:
exchanges are in any event servicin
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Source: NHFDC website reporting cum
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Box 5.5: Good practice in NGO skill
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D. Conclusions and recommendations
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is set. In the case of SGSY, the gu
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Table 6.2: States/UTs with unemploy
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Table 6.4: Coverage of disability s
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Table 6.6: Contributions and benefi
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6.24. Easily the largest scheme for
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6.35. While the design of the insur
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people. The transfer under NOAPS wa
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7.4 (a) The Persons with Disabiliti
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7.8 (ii) Sectoral policy issues in
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• in the area of education, the p
Page 159 and 160:
awareness raising about disability
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more formal institutions in disabil
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7.28 There is little detailed analy
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Table 7.2: Institutions providing b
Page 167 and 168:
systematically related to the numbe
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• collaboration between NGOs and
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moving to improved outcomes for PWD
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
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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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