*2014 Cafe Dissensus Forthcoming Issues and Concept Notes:* *Issue 10: August: Debating the Disability Law in India: Questions, concerns and perspectives * *[Last date for submission: 30 July, 2014; Date of publication: 15 August, 2014]*
*Guest-Editors:* Dr. Nandini Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata & Dr. Shilpaa Anand, Assistant Professor of English, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad. *Concept Note:* India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the first Human Rights Treaty of the twenty first century that became operative in May 2008. The UNCRPD rests the obligation on member states to ensure and promote the full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all Persons with Disabilities without discrimination of any kind on the basis of disability. The CRPD has introduced a paradigm shift based on the social model of disability, in the discourse relating to persons with disabilities, which is based on the presumption of legal capacity, equality and dignity. Since India ratified this convention in October 2007, it became mandatory for the state to enact suitable legislation in furtherance of the rights recognized in the UNCRPD. In India the two defining laws for disabled people are The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act of 1995 and the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act 1999. However these laws do not incorporate a number of rights recognized in the UNCRPD or the recognized rights are not in total harmony with the principles of the Convention. In April 2010, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment constituted a Committee with members representing persons with disabilities, NGO’s and experts from the disability sector, to draft a new legislation, which would be in harmony with the UNCRPD. The Committee submitted the draft bill to the Ministry on 30th June 2011, after direct consultations with civil society groups representing persons with disabilities all across the country as mandated by the UNCRPD. However the RPD Bill is still a work in progress and is yet to be placed in the Indian Parliament before it acquires the status of a law. The politics that influenced and impacted the drafting of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2011 witnessed much debate over a range of issues that concern the lives of people with different types of disabilities. These debates continue even today, when the RPD stands referred to a Standing Committee of the Parliament subsequent to changes made by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Indian state which were not acceptable to some of the disability activist groups that had spearheaded the drafting of the Bill. In this present scenario, it is necessary to reflect on some of the critical issues that governed the entire process of legislation on promoting all rights of all persons with disabilities, including participation in society on an equal basis with others. The August issue of Café Dissensus seeks to explore some of these debates that surround the recognition of persons with disabilities as an integral part of human diversity. We invite articles from disabled people, activists, parents and family members of disabled people, practitioners in the disability field and others that would highlight issues in the context of enacting legislation for persons with disabilities in India. Some of the issues that are of importance include but are not restricted to: *Defining and Certifying Disability* – Historically disability has been considered as the domain of medicine with the stress on rehabilitation that would restore persons with disability to ‘normalcy’. Thus the power to define and certify impairments and disabilities has remained with medical and para-medical professionals who are endorsed by the bureaucracy and to some extent by the community as well. The demand of different groups of people with different medical conditions that limit their lives to enter into the category of disability follows this trend. With the increasing understanding of the social model comes the realization that disability is more about collective social and structural barriers than about individual functional limitations. However, there is a larger debate that links certification with access to benefits and thus sharpens the focus on individual characteristics rather than on social and community structures. State mechanisms prefer the individual medical definitions as programmatic and financial decisions are determined by such definitions. The new law proposes a socio-medical scale to be used to define,identify and certify persons with disabilities. How then should disability be defined? By whom? Through what processes? *Legal Capacity of Persons with Disabilities* – As disability has largely been equated with dependence and the incapacity for productive work, there has been an association with lack of decision-making also. Both the state and social ideologies accord a helpless, pitiable and dependent status to persons with disabilities thereby impinging on their capacity to take decisions and make choices about their own lives. This is further aggravated in a community based system like in India where recognition of individual capacity is somehow subsumed under collective of group identity, which is dependent on different markers like caste, class, ethnic, linguistic, regional, religious and gender identities. Coming to the issue of different disabilities, the sector is itself divided on issues of according more recognition of legal capacity for some kinds of disabled people and complete denial and negation of choice for some other categories of disabled people. Parents and families also are concerned regarding the ways in which full legal capacity will affect their intellectually disabled and socially impaired wards in a social system that is intolerant of perceived lack of limited levels of capability. What kind of legal capacity then should be envisaged? What kinds of support systems/mechanisms need to be evolved? How do we ensure that diversity is respected and that disabled people are secure in their communities? *Equality and Non-Discrimination* – India is a country known for its diversity, hierarchical relationships and power struggles between majority and minority groups. Amidst all the dimensions of difference and inequality based on perceived natural and cultural diversities, disability is seen as a sign of incapacity, which is also linked to productivity and resultant loss of status in family and community. For disabled people, what could be the dimensions of equality that could be achieved? Does everyone have to be productive to be valued? How can people who are perceived to be unproductive and dependent then be brought under principles of non-discrimination? Should Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution be reframed so as to include disability as a marker of identity? The two decades of the PWD Act has demonstrated clearly that legislation by itself does not lead to gaining of rights by disabled people. The RPD bill had put forward two distinct bodies to protect and ensure the enjoyment of rights guaranteed in the Bill by all disabled people – the National Disability Rights Authority and District Disability Rights Tribunal. Will the way in which these institutions have been envisaged be able to fulfill the responsibilities assigned to them? Or will they remain as powerless as the existing mechanisms of redressal and recourse? Finally the politics surrounding the framing and passing of the RPD Bill 2012 need to be highlighted and reflected on. Is there a power hierarchy operating within the disability sector itself? Have the voices of all disabled people been articulated? Have appropriate provisions been envisaged for all equally? The debate on one law vs. many laws needs to be extended further to ensure that all sectors are covered adequately. On the other hand, there is further debate that has divided the disability sector in India. While some disability activists felt that the Bill should been passed and amendments sought for later, others reasoned that the draft law should be revisited to carefully examine whether all major provisions had been incorporated. *We invite articles on any of the above issues or other issues related to the legislation on disability in India. The above list is merely suggestive.* We also invite persons with disabilities to write in our OPINION section about their experiences of the 2014 general elections held in the country and the extent to which they were able to participate in the process. This issue is of contemporary interest amidst claims that there was a major effort to make this election process accessible for persons with disabilities and the increase in expressions of dissatisfaction by many disabled people on the internet. Your submissions should not exceed 1500 words. Please email them to both [email protected] & [email protected]. 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