Thursday, September 29, 2005
Disaster Management Bill 2005, leaves disabled community vulnerable
When the killer Tsunami left the coasts and islands, after wreaking havoc, a subtext emerged from the human bodies that punctuated the landscape. Though death is a great leveler, the chances are if you are old or slow because of some disability it will take you first. But we cannot be fatalist to the extent of accepting this as a given.
Flip back to about a century when plagues and natural calamities took lives of millions. The calamities continue and so do outbreaks, but the story today is very different. The privileged will always escape with least amount of damage, and those on the margins will remain most vulnerable. People with disabilities were among the worst affected by the calamity and the number people with disabilities swelled further with numerous amputations and cases of mental trauma. These are all afterthoughts, nothing so tragic had happened to so many people at the same time in this country and despite most progressive future gazing a policy could not have been placed. But what about the future? Are we any wiser about what an emergency plan that takes into account people with disabilities?
Unfortunately, as is happening with most policies that are being churned out, the Government seems to be bent upon making people with disabilities re-live the tale of neglect, of being abandoned and then left out of rehabilitation polices.
I am referring to the Disaster Management Bill 2005, that became a necessity for the post-tsunami India, though it was long over due in a country that has floods, quakes and cyclones every year thanks to its sheer size. Incidentally, the Bill makes not even one mention of disabled or disability.
The Bill is being touted as a blueprint to provide for the effective management of disasters in country, but in its neglect of the vital lesson from the Tsunami about vulnerability of persons with disability the Bill nothing short of initiating a recipe of a policy disaster.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Telegram of a policy for India's persons with disabilities
The sector, which is still largely caught in the quicksand of the charity model that the Government practices and patronizes, seems unaware of the the fast paced developments quietly being ushered in by the State. Changes that will for most change the way they live, move, work and interact in public spaces.
A consultation was held by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment -- that deals with the subject of disability, with the name of Ministry only re-enforcing the charity approach -- past Thursday on Draft National Policy for Persons with Disabilities. It is difficult to imagine that a national policy for a marginal group being formulated in such a low key manner. Almost six decades into its existence as an independent nation, the least one would expect from an elected government is to make the process of policy formulation a little more representative by regional consultations or at least a substantial publicity by national and vernacular media. I suppose that will be asking for too much.
The Draft was sitting at the Ministry's website, open for public comment and responses that had to be initially given within 15 days of being posted.
This is shocking and makes one wonder, what is the profile of Indian Disability at least in the minds of policymakers in the Ministry? Well quite naturally, it is of an English speaking, net savvy phantom or imaginary group. How can they go so wrong, while knowing and acknowledging openly that they do not even have an accurate figure of people with disabilities. In this case it is safe to assume that policy was meant to be read by English speaking metro-based NGO activists – who are the wheelers and dealers of the handouts that are dubbed as rights. Incidentally, it this microscopic minority that has perfected the art of carrying the self-assumed status of guardians of a faceless and voiceless majority, and thus need to tackled.
Those treading the dusty streets of villages and small towns are unlikely to storm the national capital and give opinions.
Anyways, the members of disability sector too have to take the blame for competing to gain the proverbial place under the sun. Why did they not emphatically raise the issue of undemocratic and hurried process of formulating the Draft National Policy? Why did they not bring the house down demanding a clear statement detailing how the Draft was prepared in such secrecy? Why was it ambiguous on what model of disability was the Indian State going to officially adopt?
The Joint Secretary of the Ministry, Jayati Chandra, was at her best as master of ceremony skirting all possible criticisms aka setbacks. In her chatty style she announced that the sector has been consulted and more suggestion can be sent by September end, and after taking these into account a revised draft would be placed sometime in October end. She is moving on as a bureaucrat to another assignment, but what she has done or managed to pull off is no joke. National Policies are not drafted every year, and the voicesless and faceless members of disability sector will keep paying heavy price for this telegram of a policy.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
A Decade of Denial
India's seventy million people with disabilities will soon see the tenth year or a decade of the passage of India's Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. The event will only serve as a grim and heart breaking reminder of little that has changed since 1995, when the Act was passed after a pitched political and media campaign.
As the country surges economically, people with disabilities remain on the sidelines fighting individually, hoping for support from the Government.While all this happens, I have decided to make my own small effort to share with the community and users lessons and information on the struggle of disability sector in India.
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