Opinion Enabling law

In recent years, the discourse on disability has shifted from charity and welfare to rights and entitlements. The new bill seeks to enshrine a more modern understanding of the issue, in keeping with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by India. This means ensuring a range of economic, political, cultural and legal rights for such persons, as well as addressing social attitudes that have kept them marginalised for so long. Under the new bill, persons with disabilities would have greater legal access and control over their finances. It also seeks to enable political participation, laying down that no person would be disqualified from voting on the grounds of disability. Providing for a 5 per cent reservation of public sector jobs and urging an inclusive educational framework that would absorb children with special needs, it aims to integrate such persons with the mainstream.

Though well-intentioned, the aims of the new legislation would have to be supported by adequate infrastructure. Finally, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunity Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act of 1995 had faltered in the crucial stage of implementation. The new law, if it comes into being, should not meet the fate of its predecessor.

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