*ACCESSIBLE VERSION
*
*
Attachment Can Be Viewed And Downloaded here : bit.ly/4LawsPdf
*
*View Attachment Accessible text-only version here : bit.ly/FourLaws*
(*These comments are restricted to areas chosen by NAC as key concerns of
the sector. If anything is unclear please contact me for clarifications.)*
7. Penalties : Far too many identity-based structures, penalties and
committees with too little action... Consolidate commonalities. Simplify!
(see eom)
6. Institutions for Enforcement : Ditto
5. Poverty and Exclusion : A very narrow definition of poverty and
exclusion! Also limited - an aged man even with family is not immune to
abuse / exploitation / neglect / exclusion. See eom.
4. Special versus Integrated Education : I'm with Smitha on this. Sometimes
change needs to be forced for it to happen (eg: desegregation busing in USA
schools). Choice should always be present, but an inclusive school should
be the norm, any other type of schooling a choice. There is a case for
co-locating inclusive and special schools so that groups are not totally
isolated while still maintaining their autonomy,
3. Legal Capacity for the disabled : *Capacity is defined as an
individual's ability to make an informed decision. The distinction between *
*Clinical vs Legal vs mental vs physical capacity has not been explored.
Nor has the area of active vs passive capacity.*
PERSON LACKING LEGAL CAPACITY IS DISABLED, BUT NOT ALL DISABLED PEOPLE LACK
LEGAL CAPACITY - We are all born with legal capacity... a disability alone
does not indicate a lack of capacity.
Legal Capacity is measured on a sliding scale *-* (it can alternately
evolve, devolve, fluctuate, regress, be temporary or long-term) *-*
with different
levels of capacity required for different decisions.
Loss of legal capacity is possible for every human - and is not exclusively
the domain of the disability sector.
Also the connection between crime and diminished capacity indicates the
need for addressing this concept *in a separate legal domain *(along with
supported, surrogate / substituted decision making and guardianship) on the
lines of UK’s Mental Capacity Act.
Additionally, this draft has failed to address the spectrum of difference
extant between the legal concept of competence (degree of mental faculties
at a point of time, necessary to make decisions about a specific issue or
to carry out a specific act) and capacity (as in capacity to give informed
consent for medical treatment, make life choices, conduct financial
transactions etc). *Legal capacity as a concept seems to have been
incorrectly conflated with the legal concept of competence !*
I have though long and hard about legal capacity and have now reached the
conclusion that since there there will also be non-disabled people who will
need protection in this area *and* there is no law currently which
effectively addresses this concept in India; *legal capacity** needs to be
exhaustively tackled in a separate domain,* See eom.
* *
2. Definitional issues: Medical and Social Models:
If a temporary disability is not covered by this law, then where will this
groups needs be addressed ? The disabled activist shuns health related
discussion as health invariably addresses prevention which is a big taboo
for disabled people.
The RPwD Bill has a disappointingly* blinkered view of what constitutes
disability. Just how mental illness can be very disabling, there are
several other chronic debilitating medical conditions which disable far
more than some people with impairments. Autoimmune conditions, cancer,
ESRD, - the list of medical disabilities is endless.*
An illness is not a disability. An impairment is not identical to a
disability.
Both illness and impairment may CAUSE disability - whether fluctuating,
temporary, permanent or chronic in nature. Whether hidden, assumed,
invisible, unrecognized, social or medical.
Whatever one calls it the experience is the same.
1. Single or multiple laws
*From what I understand the call for a unified law is born from activists'
frustration over a decade's experience of being shunted from office to
office for work that never gets done without maximum effort, protesting
and fighting for ridiculously small victories. Time and again.* It is felt
that it's the right concept for India currently, given the lack of
substantive progress in the sector's goals. Perhaps once the simplicity in
structure yields basic results in core disability areas, the umbrella law may
naturally evolve multiple subordinate legislations for specialised needs.
There's a lot of insecurity about identity... How can there be no mental
health act is what the mental health sector believes. When I suggested
scrapping a rights-based disability law in favour of a general
anti-discrimination law on the lines of UK's Equality Act - disabled
activists were equally resistant to the idea of 'giving up their law.'
EOM* : *
*
*
*What if we begin and end with 4 laws?*
*Instead of .... How about ....*
People with Disabilities Act *The Equity & Anti-Discrimination Act *
*(this would include
reasonable accommodation to anyone facing a **disadvantage** *
* & phased, catch-up **affirmative action / equal opportunity
measures)
*
Mental Health Act *The Mental Capacity act*
(also addressing
link with crime etc. *See attachment*)
National Trust Act *The Protection of Vulnerable Groups
& Public Guardianship Act* (also addressing institutions,
indigent homeless groups. etc. *See **attachment*)
Rehabilitation Council of India *The Delivery, Monitoring and Quality of
Care / Welfare services Act* (*See **attachment*)
* I BELIEVE*
- that Law should not be about the person so much as the problem
- that Identity and righting historical wrong can be dealt with outside
of the law process
- that while the First right holder is primary, being a First right
holders does not diminish the rights held by a caregiver or
professional who
may have an equal stake if not more and emotional investment
- that Spending should be proportionate to number of people with problem
- that sometimes true Equality can be achieved only through equitable
means
*This alternative proposition could suit all AND reach out to more people
in need while cutting through a swathe of redundancies.*
*
*
*After all human rights violations and types of abuse are the same in any
custodial institution - be it prison, juvenile home, orphanage, old age
home or centre for people with intellectually / psychosocial disability. *
*
*
*And an assumed-able person with lupus could suffer far more than the
recognised-disabled polio-afflicted person.*
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