Standing Committee Report on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill PDF + audio

[Amba Salelkar]

Hello everyone,

Please find attached, in case you have missed it, the Standing Committee Report on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill.

In case this would benefit you. I have recorded myself reading out the entire report (sans the minutes of meetings). The link is here:

https://soundcloud.com/equals-cpsj/standing-committe-report-on

I hope soundcloud is accessible, if it is not, please do write to me, I will try and work on a more accessible link.

Best,

Amba.

[Dlu South]

Thank you very much Amba for taking this time consuming effort on my request. Am sure this would be helpful for many other friends too with low vision, who have not yet installed jaws software. Its clear and loud. shall listen to the full report and get back on my comments. 

Thanks a lot

Warm regards

Smitha

[Dlu South]

Dear all,

I have the following suggestions after listening to Standing Committee report. 

1. Extending the bill to Jammu & Kashmir is a welcome move.

2. Change of title from RPDB to Rights of persons with special / differently abled persons is not preferable. 

3. In Habilitation & Rehabilitation, Accessible Infrastructure is not adequate. (from Amba's voice recorded SC report 44-46 min)

4. Full legal capacity has been emphasised only to blind, deaf and dumb. (language needs to be changed as well and technical names to be used). There is no mention of Psycho social & intellectual disabilities in this section(SC report 56 - 58 mins).

5. In case if a person with psycho social disability requires a guardian, plenary guardianship is granted (which is recommended to be limited guardianship). If he/she doesnt really require a guardian but is forced by people/authorities/system to have a guardian, there is no provision to challenge it.

6. Discrepancy among the disability groups in (limited) guardianship to be extended to all disabilities to be discussed and sorted out. In that case, guardianship to be carried outside the law as a seperate law, general for all and not only for pwds. (1hr.2mins - 4mins)

7. The report provides for children with disabilities to access inclusive education system and to access free and compulsory education in neighborhood. But it doesnt talk about making education systems in neighborhood inclusive and accessible. This will lead to the existing threat of mainstream schools directing children with disabilities to a so called inclusive school or special school instead of making their institution accessible and inclusive. There is also no mention of real inclusive features like specialised teaching learning methodologies, adapted teaching learning aids, all support measures in learning, reasonable accommodations etc.(1hr.6-8mins & 1hr.35-37mins)

8. Grievance redressal mechanism available only for issues related to employment.(1hr.20-22mins). Even at the later part of the report, grievance measures mentioned are not adequate and doesnt cover all many issues faced by pwds.

9. No mention of cultural / recreational activities to be made accessible & inclusive.Inclusive cultural/recreational programs have to be developed. It is not enough if (tv) programs are made accessible for deaf persons but sign language interpreters are to be made available in malls, trade centres, etc.To that effect, a guideline should be formulated with respect to inclusive and accessible cultural / recreational activities.(1hr.30-32mins). 

10. Expanding reservations to all specified disabilities wrt entitlements is not dealt with in the report. (1hr.45-47mins)

11. Time frame of 5 years to make existing small infrastructure accessible and more extension for huge buildings is not a good idea. This is not a 1st legal provision to provide that idea. It is there in the law from 1995. May be for the current standing committee, its the first time that they think in these lines. Time frame has to be cut short to 1 year and 2 years respectively for small and huge buildings. Or else, Every building owner would drag the process till the last of 5 years and whenever they get a maintenance or repair work done. Accessibility will have to be in the priority list and appropriate punitive measures have to be implemented. Building by laws have to be changed accordingly.(1hr.52-54mins)

12. Housing is only dealt with wrt leprosy cured persons. It has to be covered for all pwds. There is a general mention of shelter along with food and clothing. These have to be dealth with greater detail. 

These were my observasations from the report. Am sorry, I could not not compare it with the original bill due to temporary vision disturbances. So there can be some duplications in my suggestions.

Over all, it is a good report, progressed one step up towards UNCRPD.

Thanks

Smitha

[Amba Salelkar]

Hi everyone

Please find the YouTube link for the Standing Committee Report here http://youtu.be/cLdtVjdt3cc. Thanks Vaishnavi for the tech tips!

Please also find the DropBox Link here with the files arranged chapter wise. Chapter 1 contains Part A of the Bill and Chapter 1 of Part B.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/aqc9jw5t185h7ou/AAAbgUkGLee_u3DJYQ9fU3gsa?dl=0

I hope this is useful, please feel free to circulate among all your networks and to anyone who might find this useful.

Please contact me on amba.s...@gmail.com for any queries or accessibility issues.

Amba

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Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability Law and Policy

12/21, Custain Beach Road,

Santhome, Chennai,

INDIA 600004

+914424611313

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www.inclusiveplanet.org.in

[Dlu South]

Hi Deependra,

The Standing Committee has recommended the government to conduct consultations with stake holders again before finalising the bill. There fore, we still have some scope to include more of our suggestions. Our next task will have to push the government for further consultation with fair participation of stake holders and a transparent approacj from the govt. should be possible.

Thanks

Smitha 

On 18 May 2015 at 10:02, Dipendra Manocha <d...@saksham.org> wrote:

Dear all

 

What is our strategy for this?

 

After submission of standing committee report, what is the possibility of getting any change in the proposed bill?

 

To my understanding, It will now go to Cabinet committee which would approve it to be placed in Parliament

MPs can suggest any amendments to this bill if there is any discussion on the bill in the Parliament.

 

Thus, to whom are we planning to send our suggestions for changes?

 

Thanks

Dipendra