General News
1 year, 10 meetings & a working draft Govt spends Rs 86 lakh to draft disability law but whereโs it?
Strange as it may sound, but the government has over the past year spent more than Rs 86 lakh on the exercise of drafting the new disability law, with the law is still nowhere in sight.
An expense of exactly Rs 86,81,810 has been incurred by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on holding 10 meetings of the committee constituted last year to come up with the new disability legislation, which is in sync with the UN Convention on Rights of the Disabled. India ratified this Convention earlier and was under international obligation to frame a rights-based law for the persons with disability. So far, no concrete draft of the law is available.
The panel was initially given four months to draft the law but has since sought four extensions with its latest deadline being June 30. After 10 meetings over a year, what the government currently has is a working draft of the proposed law, which a lot of disability rights activists have slammed for some of its provisions.
Ironically, the entire expense on the exercise is being borne by Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Institute for the Physically Handicapped, which gave out the figures to The Tribune under an RTI query. This expenditure was as on April 1 this year.
As for the available draft law, maximum resistance to it is being posed by the physically disabled, including the visually impaired, who have lived in the realm of a welfare-based law where job reservations are guaranteed to them. They are opposing a rights-based approach, fearing losses which a welfare approach offers.
Criticism is also being voiced over the fact that the working draft does not talk about giving full legal capacity to people with intellectual and mental disability and psychosocial disorders. โThe concern here is that if full legal capacity is denied to these people, they might be taken for a ride by unscrupulous elements,โ Roma Bhagat, a disability lawyer who recently attended a legal consultation on the proposed disability law draft, told The Tribune today.
The irony, however, is that even with several extensions and lakhs of taxpayersโ money, no acceptable draft is still ready. Disability rights activist Javed Abidi today said the proposed draft would still face resistance because it does not factor in the concerns of stakeholders.
โIn the first place, a committee of 30 cannot possibly draft a law. It is unwieldy and is short of people with the intellectual ability to represent the disability sector,โ he said.
Interestingly, the legal consultant for the law -- a disability expert from Hyderabadโs NALSAR University of Law -- alone has been given Rs 6.8 lakh to prepare the draft.
Additional Information
Country: India
Website: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110528/nation.htm#1
Email: email from: Disability News and Information Service
Phone: N/A
Contact Person: N/A
Source: Aditi Tandon/TNS
When: 08/6/2011
