HYDERABAD: Deputation of special educators to teach children with special needs remained the bone of contention between citizens and core committee members at the public consultation to frame rules for Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD) Act, 2016, on Monday. Though public argued that it has been mandated by the Centre and the clause was added to draft legislation, officials were not optimistic about it being incorporated into the Act. The meet saw over 30 new recommendations being made by the end a day-long meeting. All recommendations will be incorporated into the Act after a meeting by core committee within a week’s time after which the final draft will be sent to the state government for ratification, said an official.
After the core committee finalises the draft rules, the report is then sent to the law department. The RPD Act, 2016, has to be ratified in the state before the Supreme Court-mandated October 15 deadline. A delay would mean that the state has to pay court fines amounting to lakhs.The public consultation had over 150 persons representing different disabled groups. Some of the recommendations to be incorporated into the Act include expanding powers of State Disability Rights Commissioners to take up cases of discrimination against People With Disabilities (PWDs) on a suo-moto basis.
Under the new Act, complaints have to be heard within 30 to 60 days. The participants also suggested that provision to deal cases on an emergency basis should be added, and those should be resolved within a week to three weeks. The guidelines that determine what constitute as an emergency case are yet to be discussed.The new Act proposes that no government or private establishment should demand money for the services extended to PWDs. The consultation session brought clarity to the term “private establishments” and increased the ambit of the clause to include, hotels, recreation centers etc.
Not all were happy with the proceedings of the day
“The Act has no place for persons with mental disabilities. The grievance redressal provisions mentioned in the Act are going to send people run in circles to government offices. There is no online system being incorporated into the bill,” said K Esther, a teacher with National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (Divyangjan) (NIEPID), Secunderabad.The Scheduled Castes and Tribes have a strong commission that protect their rights, the PWDs too need to get their own commission or else the enforcement of the Act will suffer, she added.
The State welfare of disabled and senior citizens department, had uploaded the draft rules on their website two months ago but no braille draft rules were made available to the public. The director of the welfare of disabled and senior citizens, B Sailaja, apologised to the visually-impaired persons present at the meet for the lapse. “We have been holding consultation sessions for two months now and have covered most of the 15 disabled groups. We are a little behind than other states in the implementation of the Act,” said the director. “We have also looked at how the Act has been implemented in other states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu. Wherever better rules have been adopted, we have taken cognizance of it,”said Sailaja.
The director insists that the Act is stronger than the 1995 Act, “Now 5 per cent of a State’s department budget has to be allocated for the disabled welfare. The new law provides the state disabled rights commission with quasi-judicial powers. The department hopes to enforce its powers through the Act,” added Sailaja. The officials admits implementation has always been an issue but is confident of making improvements to the laws enforcement.