Dear All We earnestly request you to join us in the protest against the Government’s ill-thought approved Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2013 Bill which government is planning to introduce in the next session in the parliament. This Bill has countless provisions which are detrimental to the interests of persons with disabilities. We demand Nodal Ministry, The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to reconsider its decision to ahead with the introduction of the Bil and make necessary rectification in consonance with UNCRPD forthwith.
Protest Venue: Shastri Bhawan in front of MSJE Office New Delhi Date: 28 January 2014 Timing: sharp 10:00 Indian Standard Time. Below I’m highlighting major contentions of the Bill for your perusal. 1. Section 32 of the approved RPD Bill which deals with the identification of posts is oblivious to the verdict delivered by the Highest Court on October 8 2013. It quashed the central government’s 2005 office memorandum and claim that reservation for the disabled must be restricted to “identified” posts. The apex court ruled that the reservation must be on the basis of the total number of vacancies in a particular cadre rather than posts identified by the government. 2. The definition of low vision in the Bill is deleterious to the interests of both blind and low vision. Low vision Definition given at Sl. No.11 of the Schedule to the Bill of the definition of blindness at Sl. No.2 of the schedule to the Bill when compared with the definition of low vision in question, clearly reveals that the Bill seeks to create further confusion with regard to certification of blindness and low vision to the detriment of the interest of the blind. It is pertinent to note here that while the definition of blindness given in the schedule provides that if anyone has a vision not exceeding 3/60 or 10/200 (snellen) in the better eye but at the same time the definition of low vision provides that if anyone has a vision not exceeding 6/18 or 20/60 and less than 6/60 or 20/200 (snellen) in the better eye with correcting lenses, he may be certified as low vision. It implies that a person could fall in both the categories at the same time and certified so both blind and low vision. This is so because the definition of low vision allows a person to be certified as low vision if one has vision less than 6/60 or 20/200 making certain persons covered by the maximum range of vision for being certified as blind. As such, if the present definition of low vision is retained, the benefits which otherwise were also difficult to be obtained by the blind particularly totally blind, would become more difficult to be obtained by them. 3. Section 73 (A)of the approved Bill calls for constitution of National Commission for persons with disabilities But unlike other commissions like National Commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities, and women doesn’t mandate that it should be headed by persons with disability. Not only these, there are many more loopholes like lowering of age relaxation, review of identified posts at the interval of five years, no specific mentioning of public places, recommendationary powers to NCPD alert us not to allow this Bill’s introduction in the upcoming parliament session which will be re-convened for vote on Account in the next month’s first fortnight. Please join us in large numbers and spread this call message like a fire across your network. -- Avinash Shahi M.Phil Research Scholar Centre for The Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India Time to meet up again! Register for AccessIndia Convention 2014: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in 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 Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
