Hello dear srinivas I wuould like to appreciate efforts you had taken for the sake for the disabled comunity. I request the organisations who are representing for State and central. There will be no weight for a person voice. If the comunity representatives try to hear their voice together with the comunity then it will have some good result.
Another thing I would like to share the efforts taken by srinivas is that he tried to educate the normal persons and he made the government of Andhra Pradesh to add a lesson of Louie Braille in the class 8th of telugu text book. Now the time came for us to raise our voice together. --- On Sat, 10/11/12, srinivas.karnati <[email protected]> wrote: From: srinivas.karnati <[email protected]> Subject: [AI] Constitutional Protection and Safeguards to the persons with disabilities To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, 10 November, 2012, 11:16 PM Dear Friends: on behalf of the Development and Welfare Association of the Blind (Andhra Pradesh), on 5th November 2012 once again I have submitted a representation To His Excellency Shri Pranab Mukherjee Hon'ble President of India on sub: Right to equality for persons with disabilities - a proposal for constitutional Recognition - a humble submission for expeditious action-regarding: I am pasting it below for your kind information. Could you please examine the letter and submit the same or with modifications to him and also to the following on be half of your respective organizations. 1. to the pry minister of India 2. to all the ministers of council 3. to all the members of both houses of parliament 4. The presidents and general secretaries of national and regional political parties Thanking you all. k. srinivas Secretary DWAB Nalgonda AP. To His Excellency Shri Pranab Mukherjee Hon'ble President of India Ref: 135/dwab/2012 Dated: 4th November 2012 Respected Sir, Sub: Right to equality for persons with disabilities - a proposal for constitutional Recognition - a humble submission for expeditious action-regarding: We, on behalf of the Development and Welfare Association of the Blind (Andhra Pradesh), in consultation with several other organisations and like-minded individuals, hereby submit the following few lines for your kind enough consideration and request you with humility to do the needful in the direction of providing constitutional remedy to the historic injustice inflicted upon the citizens with disabilities in our land of rich heritage and culture of co-existence: As his Excellency might be fully aware, nearly Three Crore Indians - 3% of our population - are officially counted as people suffering from various disabilities, visual-impairment, hearing-impairment and other locomotor disabilities in particular. Ironically enough, a large proportion of this population suffers gross negligence in the hands of our public institutions. It is now estimated that nearly Fifteen Million visually-impaired and around Sixty-four Million other disabled have been subjected to the cruelties of daily life, and almost all of them are living without basic amenities such as food, decent clothing, a shelter of their own and minimum education. At a time our policy echelons are busy ensuring human rights for other marginalised groups, SCs, STs and Women, here are the minuscule minority who live away in a shear silence a life that falls below the standards any civilisation can ever think of. We hope his Excellency would agree with us in a candid admission that the socio-economic backwardness of persons with disabilities in our country stems from nowhere but our own constitution that fails to make any meaningful provision for the rights of this scattered community. While Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution took extra-care to ensure the right of equality for all citizens in India, with enough safeguards for such marginalised sections as SCs, STs and OBCs through affirmative policy in education and employment, persons with disabilities have been conveniently forsaken in this thwarted war of vote-bank politics. Look at, for example, the speed with which Governments in the recent past have moved swiftly and brought about 27% reservation for OBCs in education and employment through the constitutional Amendment, and the same swiftness that can be seen in the present regime's attempt to provide 33% reservation for women through another Constitutional Amendment. Persons with disabilities at times really feel let down in the present political climate where every community with a sizeable Vote-bank and social capital is frequently showered with all policy concessions, whereas, persons with disabilities, who are a scattered minority at best (with very little advantage for commanding vote-bank manoeuvring in a given place), are never taken seriously by our majoritarian democracy. Consequently, the real concerns of this genuinely deprived community hardly get any attention, whatsoever. The depiction briefly outlined above may give you an impression that the signatories of this letter are unaware of the recent initiatives being undertaken by the Governments in favour of persons with disabilities, which we wish to clarify in unequivocal terms in the following lines with as much precision as possible: The socio-economic deprivation of persons with disabilities and a well-found recognition that this deprivation is due largely to lack of constitutional safeguards is neither entirely new nor has been hidden from the ruling regimes of post-independent India. The Government of India under the leadership of Sri Rajiv Gandhi set up a committee to consider legislation for the physically challenged. Headed by Shri Baharul Islam, a distinguished parliamentarian at that time, the Committee was asked inter alia to work out the scope, objectives and general scheme of legislation for persons with disabilities covering various aspects of prevention, rehabilitation, social security and welfare of this section of society. Baharul Islam Committee submitted its report to the Government in June, 1988, with a prime recommendation, among other things, that Articles 14, 15, 16 and 46 of the Constitution be amended to include the words "persons with disabilities" and "mentally-handicapped" so as to provide constitutional recognition to the special circumstances under which the communities these underlying words invariably refer to. However, we have no hesitation to state that these path-breaking recommendations have been kept in a cold-storage by the subsequent Governments, and hardly anyone remembers that there was such a Committee set up to recommend the feasible framework for including persons with disabilities in the scheme of Indian Constitution. What followed thereafter, and still continues till date, in the discourse of Indian Disability Law is quite disturbing and remains far short of providing any satisfactory solutions to the problem of bringing the disabled citizens into the mainstream society. To put succinctly, there have been nearly a half-dozen legislations enacted by the Indian Parliament, each one to address a specific requirement of disability. Mental Health Act 1987, Rehabilitation Council of India Act 1992, Persons with Disabilities (equal opportunities, protection of rights and full-participation) Act 1995, National Trust Act 1998, National Policy for Persons with Disabilities 2006 are prominent among them. After India signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) 2007, however, now there is a new, perhaps a slightly renewed, buzz to enact an umbrella legislation for persons with disabilities. With a pinch of apology to his Excellency, we wish to point out that the deepest political fraud in the whole discussion on a comprehensive legislation for persons with disabilities is that the inherent need for a suitable Constitutional Amendment declaring unequivocally that the rights of persons with disabilities are as worth protecting as that of any section is completely overlooked. We also feel it is important to clarify at the outset that our unfailing stand for a constitutional Amendment in favour of persons with disabilities indeed stems largely from the unpleasant experiences often encountered in the implementation of various provisions contained in the existing legislations with regard to the empowerment of persons with disabilities. To take one example: a provision for the reservation of not less than 3% vacancies in all Government and Public Sectors in favour of persons with disabilities, clearly laid down by Section 33 of Persons with Disabilities (equal opportunities, protection of rights and full-participation) Act 1995, is never treated on par with the other legal provisions that otherwise prescribe 7.5%, 15% and 27% job reservation in favour of SCs, STs and OBCs respectively. The obvious explanation is that while the reservation provisions of the later type enjoy the Constitutional status, the former does not. The nodal Departments/Agencies in charge of implementing these provisions often find it extremely difficult to move forward under such extraneous legal conditions, and persons with disabilities are the ultimate losers in this whole technocratic, legal game. Unsurprisingly enough, the Universities' Grants Commission (UGC), the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the whole Banking Sector in India took more than a decade to implement 3% reservation in favour of persons with disabilities, that too only after being sternly reminded by the Hon'ble Supreme Court about their lackadaisical approach in dealing with the issue at hand. We feel quite painful to bring to the kind notice of his Excellency that no significant provision in PWD Act of 1995 has so far been readily implemented without a final word of interpretation from either State High-court(s) or the Hon'ble Supreme-court. It is our firm conviction that there is a greater justification for the Constitutional protection for persons with disabilities than those belonging to SC, ST and OBC, because they can always command enough opportunities, thanks to their physical fitness and uninterrupted accessibility. The present social and political trends are very such becoming benevolent even to provide 33% reservation for non-disabled, like women, so we the persons with disabilities also may kindly be given at least 3% reservation in the Bodies like Grama Panchayathi to Indian Parliament level. The last but not the least is that there is a need of following the modern concept of "The wearer knows where the shoe pinches". In fact we the persons with disabilities also kindly are given opportunity to put forward our problems in Indian Parliament and other legislative bodies which can only be possible if we are provided 3% political reservation. It is peculiar to note, that in spite of spending lot of amount on the education of the Blind and other disabled so far their ideas and views were not entertained by the concerned authorities until they follow the colonial ideas and practices of seeking opinion from non- disabled agencies for the betterment of disabled communities. In short so afar the qualified and eligible blind were not given their due share in policy making and implementation of schemes for the betterment of blind it can be only achieved by; providing 3% reservation in all political bodies. It may also be brought to the notice of his Excellency that apart from such developed countries as Canada; even some of the African countries like South-Africa and Eritrea have provided specific Constitutional provisions for safeguarding the rights of persons with disabilities. We, therefore, feel that incorporation of similar provisions in our Constitution would go a long way in ensuring persons with disabilities the fundamental right to equality enshrined in Part Three of our Constitution. In the circumstances briefly outlined above, we humbly request his Excellency to kindly examine a note of proposals enclosed herewith and advise the union Government and the Indian Parliament for an expeditious action to move an appropriate Constitutional Amendment for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Law of the Land. This appeal drafted and handed over to his Excellency by a School Teacher unambiguously reflects the real hopes and aspirations of more than a Three Crore challenged Citizens of our Country. Thanking you in anticipation, Sir! Sincerely Yours K. Srinivas The Secretary [email protected] PROPOSAL FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT IN FAVOUR OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 1. Amendment of Article 15(1) and 15(2): "The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to." Incorporation/Alteration/Addition/Deletion: "Disabilities" after the words place of birth" and "Disability be removed from (Subject to any disability, liability.". 2. Addition of new Article 15(3-A): Nothing in this Constitution shall prevent the State from making special provisions for persons with disabilities in general and for women and children with disabilities in particular to ensure that they enjoy benefits on an equal basis with others under the law. 3. Article 16(2): "No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office under the State" Incorporation of the word "disabilities" after the word residence. 4. Explanation to be incorporated after Article 23(1): Traffic in human beings and beggar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law Explanation: Causing anyone temporary or permanent disability or mental impairment or accentuating the same shal also be an offense punishable under the Law. 5. Insertion of Explanation to Article 29 (1): "Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same." Explanation: For the purposes of this article, while Braille shall also be recognized as a distinct Script to be deployed by persons with visual-impairment, Sign language shall be recognized as a distinct language to be used by hearing-impaired. 6. Amendment of Article 30 (1): "All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice." Explanation: the words "visually-impairment" and "hearing-impairment" should be added after "language", with a proviso that persons with visual-impairment and hearing-impairment shall have the right to establish and administer the educational institutions of their choice. 7. Article 41-A: State shall ensure that every person with disability shall enjoy all the human rights and fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the International Treaties, Covenants and Conventions subject to their ratification by Government of India. It shall further be obligatory for the State to evolve a viable policy framework to implement the same. 8. Article 46: "The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation" Incorporation of the words "persons with disabilities" after Scheduled Tribes. 9. Fundamental Duties: Addition of a new duty 51-A (L): Citizens shall renounce discriminatory and derogatory practices harming the dignity of persons with disabilities. 10. Deletion of Article 102 (1) (b): Article 102 (1) (b) which says that a person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament "if he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court". This clause excludes people with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities from membership to either House of Parliament and should be deleted. 11. Deletion of Article 191 (1) (b): which states that a person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a State "if he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court". This clause excludes people with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities from membership to the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a State and should be deleted. 12. Article 243D: Reservation of seats Addition of sub clause(C) with the words "and persons with disabilities" after 243D (1) (b) is prayed for. 13. Article 243T: Clause 1 Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every Municipality and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Municipality as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the Municipal area or of the Scheduled Tribes in the Municipal area bears to the total population of that area and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality Insertion of words "and persons with disabilities" after Scheduled Tribes in Clause (1). Clause 2 Not less than one third of the total number of seats reserved under clause ( 1 ) shall be reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes Proviso to Article 243T (2): Provided that 5% seats shall be reserved for women with disabilities. Clause 3 Not less than one third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Municipality shall be reserved for women and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality Clause (3) addition of words "and women with disabilities" after Scheduled Tribes. 14. Addition to Article 325: Insert "and disability" after "grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or any of them". Then, no person with disability shall be ineligible for inclusion in, or to claim to be included in a special, electoral role. 15. Modification to Article 326: Delete "unsoundness of mind" after "ground of non residence". This shall stop the exclusion of people with psychosocial and intellectual disability as eligible for registration as a voter at Elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assemblies of States. 16. Modification to Article 343: "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals." Sign language to be recognized as official language. This shall then be recognized as a language that can be used in the Legislature (Article 210). 17. Addition to Article 350: "Language to be used in representations for redress of grievances. Every person shall be entitled to submit a representation for the redress of any grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a State in any of the languages used in the Union or in the State, as the case may be." Explanation: This shall include sign language for the people with hearing and speech impairment. 18. Insertion of Explanation to Article 350 A: "It shall be the endeavour of every State and of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups..." Explanation: For the purposes of this Article, sign language to be recognized as mother tongue for the people with hearing and speech impairment. 19. Insertion of Explanation to Article 350 B: "Special Officer for linguistic minorities" Explanation: People with hearing and speech impairment to be recognized as a linguistic minority for purposes of this Article. 20. Schedule VII: Insertion of Entry 25-A List III Schedule VII: Higher Education of persons with disabilities and Establishment of Institutions for their empowerment and rehabilitation. Insertion of Entry 25-B List III - Human Rights of persons with disabilities 21. Addition to Eighth Schedule: Sign language should be added as a scheduled language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. With regards Yours sincerely, (K. SRINIVAS) SECRETARY Email [email protected] 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 Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile devices on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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