friends As you may be aware, Ministry of social justice and empowerment has invited comments on new draft procedure for issuing medical certificates of disability. I find the procedure unnecessarily complicated, compartmentalised and cumbursome. It would generate worst confusion and difficulties in the guise of enabling every one to obtain certificates easily by simplifying and streamlining the procedure, as claimed by MSJ.
I wonder who were the stake holders who have suggested such needless modifications, as MSJ claims to have consulted stake holders. However, as it has invited comments from laypersons like you and me before august 31, I am in the process of drafting them and would appreciate any suggestions. I would put the comments in the list before forwarding them. one thing, I would like to plead here. We have, on our list, a host of persons related to various NGOs working in the field of blind. whenever there are such moves of comments by stake holders like recent meets on amendments in PWD act or consultations on the part of government/ministries which sure must include their NGOs, process of identification of jobs etc., can they not, put a word on the list so that they may benefit from large gathering of intellectually sophisticated audience? Here is the draft procedure pasted for the reference and comments of all: disability certificate.pdf Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi To simplify and streamline the procedure of issue of Disability Certificates to the Persons with Disabilities, the Government had set up a Committee, under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary of the Ministry. The committee after holding a number of meetings and in consultation with the stakeholders has drafted a revised procedure, which is being put on the Ministry's website http://socialjustice.nic.in/disabled/welcome.htm for seeking comments of all concerned. The comments may please be sent latest by 31 st August, 2007 to Sh. Ashish Kumar, Secretary of the Committee and Deputy Director General, Room No. 610, 'A' Wing, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi - 110001 (Phone & Fax No. 23383853, E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Shape Proposed Procedure for Issue of Disability Certificate Disability certificates may be classified in two types: Type I- for obtaining benefits like- employment, admission to higher educational and professional institutions, and for judicial determination of compensation claims. Type-II- for benefits like- disability pension, unemployment allowance, poverty alleviation schemes, income tax exemptions, excise and custom duty exemptions, ADIP Scheme, special school admission, travel concessions in Railways, Buses, airways, waterways etc. Certification mechanism for Type-I Certificates: Present system of Medical Boards will continue. Medical Boards can hire the services of private practitioners, resource centres etc by payment of required fee, to be determined by the District Medical Board. Certification mechanism for Type-II Certificates: Doctors at Primary Health Centres may be authorized to issue disability certificate for disabilities, which are easily discernible to naked eye. This will include locomotor disability- amputation or paralysis of limbs and visual disability- blindness. Ready reckoner will be developed for use by PHC doctors. For the cases involving non-visible locomotor disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, Leprosy- Cured, Hearing impairment, Low Vision, Mental retardation, Autism and Mental Illness, the certificate may be issued by a specialist doctor of that specialty with the assistance of paramedical or rehabilitation personnel/ resource center as given below: table with 4 columns and 7 rows S. No. Type of Disability Expert Doctor* Assisting paramedic/ rehabilitation professional* 1. Locomotor Disability (cases with non-visible disability)/ Cerebral Palsy, Leprosy-Cured Orthopedic Surgeon Occupational Therapist/ Physiotherapist 2. Visual Disability (Low Vision) Ophthalmologist Optometrist with required facility 3. Hearing Disability ENT Specialist Audiologist/ speech pathologist having access to audiometric lab facility/ resource center 4. Mental Retardation/ Autism Psychiatrist/ Clinical Psychologist/ Psychologist with training and experience of 5 years/Special Educator with training and experience of 5 years Psychologist/ Special educator 5. Mental Illness Psychiatrist/ Clinical Psychologist Psychologist 6. Multiple Disability Board under the chairmanship of CMO with required expert doctors Concerned paramedical personnel table end * Should be preferably from Government, if readily available. Otherwise, a private doctor/ paramedic/ rehabilitation professional as empanelled by the District Medical Board may be utilized for the purpose. Appellate for the certificate issued The appeal against any certificate issued may be preferred to an Appellate Medical Board, to be constituted in each Government Medical College with required experts. Choice of experts for the Board will be made by the Head of the Institutions. The appeal can be made only by the person who feels that the certificate issued to him has not taken into account relevant factors. In case of children with disabilities, appeal can be filed by the natural/ legal guardian. There will be fee for making appeal before the Appellate Board. The amount of fee will be prescribed by the State Government. 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
