March 31, 2018 Press Statement
The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) extends its wholehearted support and solidarity to the protest being conducted by disabled persons owing allegiance to various disability rights organisations in Tamilnadu against the willful violation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, whose core principle is equality and non-discrimination. Since the last four days hundreds of disabled persons have been arrested in Chennai and kept under detention by the Tamilnadu police for staging a protest against the rejection of the candidature of a visually impaired person, Shri Saravanan, who had filed his nomination for the elections to the Dharmapuri District Public Library Employees Thrift Society. The rejection of was on the ground that Saravanan could not “read” or “write” the local language, which was one of the conditions laid down in the Tamilnadu State Cooperatives Act, for contesting elections. The fact that Saravanan despite being print disabled (due to his visual impairment) could read and write the local language through the medium of Braille was sought to be overlooked. This rejection has come despite the State Disability Commissioner’s intervention in Saravanan’s favour. But this also had come after a protest by various disability rights organisations. Earlier the Cooperatives Commissioner had ridiculed and humiliated the visually impaired candidates who had approached him asking him to issue directions to ensure that their candidatures were not rejected. A police complaint was filed against him under the RPD Act for insulting and humiliating disabled persons who had gone to meet him. The NPRD affiliate the Tamilnadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled & Their Caregivers (TARATDAC), the Dec. 3 Movement and the National Federation of the Blind are in the forefront of the struggle. The NPRD joins these organisations in demanding that the provisions of the Tamilnadu State Cooperatives Act be not interpreted in a manner so as to deny persons with disabilities the right to contest elections. (Muralidharan) General Secretary Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
