Disability

Context: Structured negotiation is a collaborative and solution-driven dispute resolution technique which is increasingly being used as an alternative to litigation. It typically involves inviting the defaulting service provider to the negotiation table and impressing upon them the benefits of complying with social welfare legislations. While its utility pervades sectors, structured negotiation has been most effective in settling disability rights cases in the United States, a development that one of us, Ms. Feingold, has played no small part in ensuring.

First, what is a disability?

• Right of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016
  • Defines "Person with disability" means a person with long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with barriers, hinders his full and effective participation in society equally with others.

Let us look at the disabled population in our country

• 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.

Issues  

Let us begin the discussion with a very good quote: which summarizes the overall issues faced by the disabled:

• Unavailability of data and statistics: 
  • And the reason for that is:
    • Difficult to define disability
    • Coverage: Different purposes require different disability data
    • Reluctance in reporting disability as disability is considered to be a stigma in many places/societies
• Health
  • There is lack of affordable access to proper health care, aids and appliances 
  • Healthcare facilities and poorly trained health-workers in rehabilitation centres is another concern
• Education:
  • The education system is not inclusive. 
  • Inclusion of children with mild to moderate disabilities in regular schools has remained a major challenge.
  • There are various issues such as availability special schools, access to schools, trained teachers, and availability of educational materials for the disabled.
  • Further, reservations for the disabled in higher educational institutions has not been fulfilled in many instances
• Employment:
  • Even though many disabled adults are capable of productive work, disabled adults have far lower employment rates than the general population.
  • The situation is even worse in the private sector, where much less disabled are employed
• Accessibility:  
• Physical accessibility in buildings, transportation, access to services etc still remain a major challenge.
• Discrimination/Social Exclusion:
  • Negative attitudes held by the families of the disabled, and often the disabled themselves, hinder disabled persons from taking an active part in the family, community or workforce.
  • Differently-abled people face discrimination in everyday life. People suffering from mental illness or mental retardation face the worst stigma and are subject to severe social exclusion.

Hence these issues create a vicious cycle:

• Right of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016
  • Defines "Person with disability" means a person with long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with barriers, hinders his full and effective participation in society equally with others.
• Accessible India Campaign : Creation of Accessible Environment for PwDs:
  • A nation-wide flagship campaign for achieving universal accessibility that will enable persons with disabilities to gain access for equal opportunity and live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life in an inclusive society.
• DeenDayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme:
  • Under the scheme financial assistance is provided to NGOs for providing various services to Persons with Disabilities, like special schools, vocational training centres, community based rehabilitation, pre-school and early intervention etc
• Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase / fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP):
  • The Scheme aims at helping the disabled persons by bringing suitable, durable, scientifically-manufactured, modern, standard aids and appliances within their reach.

But Poor implementation of policies and schemes hinders the inclusion of disabled persons. Though various acts and schemes have been laid down with an aim to empower the disabled, their enforcement face many challenges.

So in essence we can say that the disabled people have to go through everyday pain of being excluded from a whole host of normal life activities. 

Not only that, they have to constantly find ways of living with equal productivity and dignity as others which the able-bodied often simply do not have to think about. 

Because of which there exists a massive gap between what people with disabilities, when provided appropriate tools and resources, are capable of achieving and what they are allowed to achieve, on account of the multiple impediments placed in their path.

Way Forward

• Prevention
  • A lot of disabilities are preventable: (Example wasting of muscles due to Polio)
    • large number of disabilities are preventable, including those arising from medical issues during birth, maternal conditions, malnutrition, as well as accidents and injuries.
    • However, the health sector especially in rural India has failed to react proactively to disability
  • Preventive health programs need to be strengthened and all children need to be screened at a young age.
  • Case Study: Kerala has already started an early prevention programme. Comprehensive Newborn Screening (CNS) programme seeks early identification of deficits in infants and reduce the state's burden of disability.
• Awareness:
  • People with disabilities need to be better integrated into society by overcoming stigma
  • There should be awareness campaigns to educate and aware people about different kinds of disability
  • Success stories of people with disabilities can be showcased to inculcate positive attitude among people
• Employment:
  • Disabled adults need to be empowered with employable skills o The private sector needs to be encouraged to employ them.
• Better measurement: 
  • The scale of disability in India needs to be better understood by improving the measurement of disability.
• Education:
  • State-wise strategies on education for children with special needs need to be devised.There should be proper teacher training to address the needs of differently abled children and facilitate their inclusion in regular schools.
  • Further there should be more special schools and ensure educational material for differently-abled children.
• Access:
  • Safety measures like road safety, safety in residential areas, public transport system etc, should be taken up Further, it should be made legally binding to make buildings disabled-friendly
• Policy Interventions:
  • More budgetary allocation for welfare of the disabled. There should be a disability budgeting on line of gender budget.
  • Proper implementation of schemes should be ensured. There should be proper monitoring mechanisms and accountability of public funds.