Dear Friends,
let me say this is not a question of black and white. it is not that whether
we should focus on enactment of new law or on the proper implementation of
existing ones. the problem is bidimentional. it is equally true that the law
presently exist are very inadequate and at the same time, the present law is
also not completely implemented. so, we cannot stress on one thing ignoring
the other. we have to balance our resources for fighting in both the ways.
there is no constitutional provisions for us. I doubt if there was any
disabled member in the constituent assembly. in that context was it
completely representative of the whole of India? I say no. political science
persons in the list can throw more light in the matter. many of us know the
phrase "within the limits of economic capacity and growth" which is repeated
several times in the pwd act which makes a way for the escaping governments
away from development works for disabled. disabled should be added in the
constitution along with SCs and STs for the purposes of articles 15 (4) and
16 (4). laws regarding the backlog of posts should be made on par with those
of SCs and STs. even though the pwd act provides for the backlog in case of
disabled, it is not followed in Karnataka. there should be a penalty for
insulting the disabled and causing harm to their dignity as it in the case
of SCs and STs. it should be made mandatory that the CCPD and state CPDs
must be a disabled. at this time, I wanted to make one thing known to the
members that UGC has taken a welcomable step in its new regulations of 2010.
in any recruitment process of a university or college, if there is a
disabled candidate, there must be a disabled person in the selection
committee/board of appointment to look after the issues related. more and
more of such measures should come. there should be a disability audit in all
the government department and public authority like gender audit wherein the
measures taken by each authority/office towards disabled shall be thoroughly
reviewed and directions are given about the lacunas. in the present case,
though consumer protection act gives some remedy, it does not address
special needs of disabled passengers. for example, we can fight for denial
of service or any related facilities. but the insult caused mentally to the
dignity of the disabled cannot be penalized. even for denial of the
facility/service, there should be a law having the strength of the
untouchability abolition act. denial of access to public facilities is
another form of untouchability only. I request legal experts to clarify and
confirm the matters.
Umesha
----- Original Message -----
From: "purnima jain" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, 08 March, 2012 3:03 PM
Subject: [AI] Harassment of the disabled by the Airlines .
Hello Rajender Sir, I totally agree with the observations made by you
.Yes you are right in suggesting that we must stress on the
implementation of the laws .But the point which I want to make is that
at this point of time there is serious lack of adequate legal
provisions which give protection to the disabled persons in specific
circumstances .The fact of the matter is that the ill treatment given
to the disabled persons is not still recognized as an infringement of
his right to live a dignified life .In my view if we have expressed
provisions at least we would have a proper mechanisms established
wherein the harassment of the disabled in public places accessing
public amenities could be dealt with .To make my point more clear
before the enactment of the domestic violence Act though there existed
remedies to deal with it in other laws too but they proved inadequate
to give protection to the women and the need was felt to codify the
law to establish proper mechanism to deal with it.Moreso the incidents
of domestic violence received recognition of being something illegal
in the common parlance only after the enactment of the aforesaid law.
Even in case of offences like sati people developed the consciousness
that they were doing something illegal and immoral only after it was
declared an offence by law The fact that there are huge number of
cases of harassment with the disabled people despite the remedy
available under the ordinary laws spell out the need for a separate
law with a proper mechanisms.. .Enactment of a separate law
will in no circumstance will deprive us of the remedies existing in
the ordinary law but would only strengthen the protection available
therein because than only the people in general and the legal
community in particular including the judges ,the lawyers and the
Human Right activist would give the desired attention it deserve .I
however do not agree with you that a separate law would isolate us
from the mainstream .Yes you are correct that we cannot include all
the circumstances but every codified law suffers from this lacuna
.more so this plea should not be taken to suggest that codification of
the law should not be done .At least some form of defined law is
needed. Your suggestion regarding the remedy available in the consumer
court is a good one, I also agree with the remarks made by you with
regards to the CCPD.And yes you need not feel sorry for expressing
your views .We are only having a healthy discussion on the issue
.Thanks .
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