Legislative Support for Education and Economic Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities in India

R. S. Chauhan
Head, Teacher Training Department National Institute for the Visually Handicapped, Dehradun, India

Abstract Modern rehabilitation services for the disabled were launched in their germinal form during 1880's. They developed sluggishly with charity till 1947. The rehabilitation services which received increasing state support after India gained independence, grew rapidly and witnessed diversifications. The enlightened people with disabilities struggled continuously with tenacity for a comprehensive piece of legislation for them. After long delays and much of committee work and several demonstrations by people with disabilities the Indian parliament passed three acts during 90s, the Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 and the National Handicapped Finance Development Corporation Act respectively.

The 1995 Act is comprehensive and stipulates several attractive provisions for education, rehabilitation and social security benefits but it is beset with numerous limitations. Hence, it is more of a policy document of disability than an act. True, India has made commendable endeavour for rehabilitating its people with disabilities but it has to traverse a much longer and harder path to bring the remaining disabled within the rehabilitation net in the coming years.

Introduction

The last quarter of the 19th century India witnessed a growing political awareness and need for decreasing the harshness of colonial rules. This period was the birth of some historic social reform movements to get rid of some unhealthy social traditions. The period marked by political turbulence and social reforms generated some repulse of efforts aimed at improving the lives of disabled people. The 1880s became witness to the launching of educational services in their germinal forms for the deaf and blind.

These modest beginnings of modern educational and rehabilitational services reveal three distinct characteristics. First of all, they were initiated and sustained till Indian Independence in 1947 by social charity. The growth was very sluggish and sporadic. Finally, they lacked, quite understandably, professional approaches.

State Initiatives and Diversification of Services

The appointment of sir Clutha Mackenzie by the Government of India as Officer on Special Duty (Blindness) conducting surveys about the status of the blind and setting up a government committee to develop a uniform Indian Code of Braille in the wake of World War II were the first state initiatives aimed at the rehabilitation of people with disabilities. A small unit in the national Ministry of Education for the Blind in 1947 and subsequent establishment of the Training Centre for the Adult Blind in 1950 by the same Ministry can be considered the first positive initiatives in this country for education and rehabilitation of people with disabilities. The services for this segment of Indian society registered a much faster growth and diversification into different branches during the post Independence era.

Need for Legislative Provisions

In spite of being one of the most detailed and voluminous constitutions of the world, Indian Constitution did not incorporate specific provisions for education and rehabilitation of disabled persons. The Constitution mentions the disabled at one place only. It happens while it delineates the legislative power of the Union and State Legislatures. (The Union and State Legislatures in India are comparable to the Federal and State Legislatures in the United States). Entry IX list II in the VIIth schedule reads: "Relief of disabled and unemployables". Combining the "disabled" with the "Unemployables" and "relief" reveals the prevailing social attitude towards people with disabilities. In spite of the great intellectuals and social reformers among the Constitution framers and their best intention, one does not find any reason to put them at higher pedestal from the common people so far as their attitude towards the disabled are concerned.

However, members of the Constituent Assembly of India were eager to make the country as a modern welfare state. This spirit of the Constitution combined with positive social traditions of India did help people with disabilities find a rightful place in the society to a large extent.

Demand for Appropriate Legislation

True, the Union and State Governments in free India did take steps for providing educational and various rehabilitation services to the community of the disabled by ways of establishing special schools, giving grants and aid to the special schools run by Non Government Organisations (NGO's), awarding scholarships for secondary and higher education and by some social security measures. However, they had a charity aspect which the enlightened members among people with disabilities did not like. They raised their voices from time to time to enact appropriate and comprehensive act for rehabilitation for this comparatively neglected section. The decision of the United Nations to celebrate the year 1981 as an International Year for the Disabled Persons (IYDP) gave a fresh impetus to the efforts of people with disabilities and their friends for a renewed endeavour to attain the goal. The Government of India set up a committee in 1980 which submitted its report for the following year, with a draft of an act. The report met the usual fate of gathering dust somewhere in the corridors of the Government.

The Government was pursuaded to set up another committee in 1987 under the chairmanship of Justice Behrul Islam, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India. The Committee submitted its report in June 1988 with commendable recommendations aimed at education, economic rehabilitation, medical and social security provisions for the handicapped population. The report was discussed at different levels, but its recommendations were modified many times before a piece of legislation was introduced in the Parliament.

A long drawn out battle followed once more before the parliamentarians could be persuaded to finally pass the legislation into an act.

The result was the Persons with Disabilities Act (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and full Participation), 1995. The Act is in tune with the spirit of the meeting held in December 1992 at Beijing under the auspices of the Economic And Social Commission for Asia and Pacific to launch the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons 1993-2002 in the region. A brief discussion of the Act follows a little later.

The First Central Act

The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 happened to be the First Central Act for the disabled in India. The Act became operational with effect from July 31st 1993, a good beginning indeed.

The Act aims at improving and regulating the training programmes for various categories of professionals in different sectors of disability. The Council is required to maintain a register of professionals among other activities. It has already taken some steps to improve the training standards of professional though it has a long and arduous road ahead to traverse before claiming success.

The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation Act

The Government of India enacted National Handicapped Finance and Development Corpotation. The Corporation has been launched in October 1997. It aims at extending soft loans to the handicapped persons for launching small ventures for self-employment. It is difficult to comment about its role due to its very brief existence.

Salient Features of The Persons with Disabilities Act 1995

The Act stipulates to set up a Central Coordination Committee and a Central Executive Committee at the national level. The former is a comparatively larger body while the later is smaller in its size and will translate the decisions of the Central Coordination Committee into actions among other functions. The Act further provides setting up State Coordination and State Executive Committee for different states of the country. The Act further stipulates the appointments of a Chief Commissioner at the National Level and Commissioners for persons with disabilities in each state, who will ensure the implementation of its provisions.

The Act makes it clear that it is in addition to all other existing laws and executive orders meant to serve different groups of persons with disabilities. It is a comprehensive Act and therefore the author plans to deal only with its provisions on education and employment in some depth.

Educational Provisions

Clause 26 (A) of the Act stipulates that the Government and appropriate local authorities shall "ensure that every child with a disability has access to free education in an appropriate environment till he attains the age of 18". It is certainly a laudable provision and will go a long way in promoting the educational facilities for them. The Act talks of different modes of the service delivery to attain this goal. Moreover, it stipulates provisions of aids and appliances as well as researches in this sector. However, it does not set any deadline to achieve the goal of universalization of education for children with disabilities. Consequently, the goal set out in the Act gets defeated to a large extent.

Economic Rehabilitation

Chapter six of the Disabled Persons Act 1995 stipulates the identification of posts which can be reserved for persons with disabilities in various government departments and public sector undertakings. (The public sector undertakings are semi-government facilities). It further stipulates to reserve not less than three percent vacancies for them. (The Government has clarified that the reservation provision applies to all group A, B, C and D categories of employees.)

The three percent reservations existed before the enactment of this Act through an executive order but it applied to group C and D posts in government sector and public sector at that time.

It further stipulates to motivate the employers in public and private sectors to ensure to have five percent of their work force from people with disabilities and this Act wants the government to achieve this goal by giving certain incentives within the "limits of their economic capacity and development".

Affirmative Action

The Act makes some provisions for preferential allotment of land to the disabled for the following purposes.

1. House
2. Setting up business
3. Setting up special schools and
4. Establishment of research centres, etc.

The Act goes on to stipulate non-discrimination with the disabled persons by taking the following measures.

1. Adapting rail compartments, buses, vessels and air-crafts in such a way to permit easy access to disabled persons.
2. Adapting toilets in rail compartments, vessels, air-crafts and waiting rooms.
3. Installing auditory signals at red lights in the public roads for the visually handicapped
4. Engraving on the surface of the zebra crossing for the visually handicapped.

More a Policy Document than an Act

True, it is a measure of happiness that the statutory book in India has an act in its pages devoted exclusively to people with disabilities. However, the act is beset with numerous limitations and has, therefore, a very limited capacity to serve the people it is meant for. All important clauses are preceded by the phrase "within the limits of their economic capacity and development". Consequently any government or local authority may choose not to implement the provisions of the Act in the name of inadequate 'economic capacity and development' Thus, the whole purpose of a long battle by the disabled and their friends will be defeated easily.

Therefore, the author considers this Act more a national policy on people with disabilities than an act with adequate power. It is a toothless and clawless tiger at best.

Suggestions

The author feels strongly to forward the following suggestions for the real empowerment of this segment of population.

1. The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, the Persons with Disabilities Act, as well as the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation Act need to be amended appropriately to make them mandatory for including the persons with disabilities themselves on various committees.

2. There must be a deadline for each goal to be achieved.

3. The phrase "within economic capacity and development" must be removed at the earliest from important clauses in the Disabled Persons Act 1995.

Conclusion

True, a large percentage of disabled children are still outside the net of educational services and many adults with disabilities remain without the benefits of modern rehabilitation services. However, there is a sea-change in the quantity and quality of services being made available to different groups of disabled persons today compared to what they were in 1947. For example, there were only 30 facilities for the education of visually handicapped children and none of them was fully financed by the government at that time when India became free. Today there are about 250 special schools for the same group with over 40 percent of them being government facilities. Likewise, there are over 400 special schools for hearing handicapped and mentally handicapped in addition to a nationwide scheme of integrated education for all categories of disabled children.

The country has also made significant achievements on the front of economic rehabilitation. The country has 23 special employment exchanges for the physically handicapped and 55 special cells for them in ordinary employment exchanges to look after their employment needs in the government sector. India has established four national institutes for the visually handicapped, hearing handicapped, mentally handicapped, orthopaedically handicapped respectively in training of personnel, provision of national level modern services and carrying out researches in each of these four disability areas.

In spite of the achievements, the country has been able to serve a fraction of disabled population only. It has to go a long way before it can provide all the persons with disabilities with adequate and appropriate services. However, according to the past experience, the author is confident and optimistic, India will make rapid progress in the coming decade to achieve meaningful, adequate and appropriate rehabilitation services for an increasing number of disabled children and adults, and enable them to take their due places in the society.

ASIA & PACIFIC JOUNAL ON DISABILITY

Vol. 1, No. 2, March 1998

Published by the Asia and Pacific Regional Committee of Rehabilitation International (RI) and the Regional NGO Network (RNN)