Disability Acts in India (Part 2)

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PM Narendra Modi in his 'Mann ki baat' address --- " We see a person's disability with our eyes. But our interaction tells us yhe person has an extra power. Then I thought, in our country, instead of using the word ' Viklaang' we should use the term 'divyaang' (meaning with divine power). "

“People with disabilities deserve the chance to build a life for themselves in the communities which they choose to live.” –Barack Obama"

"My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn't prevent you doing well, and don't regret the things it interferes with. Don't be disabled in spirit, as well as physically."--- Stephen Hawking

We as Occupational Therapist and Physiotherapist intervene patients in acute, subacute and chronic stages of recovery. Depending upon the patients severity level, few might not regain their original functional level due to permanent or temporary impairments. So in these cases we as rehabilitation team and healthcare professionals should have knowledge about various disability conditions, prognosis of patient, scope of recovery and thereby accordingly make appropriate referrals to various healthcare departments for patients treatment and recovery. We have to make patients functionally independent and improve their quality of life, for which disability certification is also a good option so that patients with temporary or permanent impairments can avail certification benefits, keep working in current physical condition and can also get facilities as mentioned is various Disability Acts.

Being disabled doesn't mean un-abled, it's actually Differently Abled. For creating a disability inclusive environment many policies and Acts are implemented all over the world. These laws are meant to create 

• Disability awareness in society.
• Right to equal opportunities to work for disabled/ specially abled people.
• Built disability inclusive and disability friendly environment at home, workplace and public places.
• Support families of PwD.
• Provide reservation for PwD in fields of education, employment, travel etc.

In the last blog we learned about The National Trust Act, 1999 and the Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992. (Click on the below link to read the blog) ⬇️

https://otpthealthcarerehab.blogspot.com/2021/07/disability-acts-in-india-part-1.html

Today, we will add information about Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.

RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, 2016 (RPWD Act) : 

The Rights of Persons With Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016 has successfully replaced the Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights, and Full Participation) Act, 1955. The need to replace the previous Act arose after India signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in the year 2007.

The number of recognized disability conditions has been increased from 7 to 21 in the RPWD Act 2016:

1. Blindness
2. Low-vision
3. Leprosy Cured persons
4. Hearing Impairment (deaf and hard of hearing)
5. Locomotor Disability
6. Dwarfism
7. Intellectual Disability
8. Mental Illness
9. Autism Spectrum Disorder
10. Cerebral Palsy
11. Muscular Dystrophy
12. Chronic Neurological conditions
13. Specific Learning Disabilities
14. Multiple Sclerosis
15. Speech and Language disability
16. Thalassemia
17. Haemophilia
18. Sickle Cell disease
19. Multiple Disabilities including deaf-blindness
20. Acid Attack victim
21. Parkinson’s disease

Salient features are:

• According to the Act any person who “intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a person with a disability in any place within public view” is punishable with imprisonment.
• The appropriate Government shall within the limit of its economic capacity and development formulate necessary schemes and programmes to safeguard and promote the right of persons with disabilities for adequate standard of living to enable them to live independently or in the community.
• The appropriate Government shall formulate schemes and programmes including provision of loans at concessional rates to facilitate and support employment of persons with disabilities especially for their vocational training and self-employment.

• The appropriate Government and the local authorities shall endeavour that all educational institutions funded or recognised by them provide inclusive education to the children with disabilities. 
• To increase the job opportunities of persons with disabilities, the Act has increased the reservation quota from 3% to 4%. This means that 4% of all vacancies in the government organizations will be reserved for disabled people.
• Another very important feature of this Act is the provision of special courts in each district. These special courts will handle cases pertaining to the violation of the rights of PwDs.
• State Governments will constitute district-level committees to address the local issues of PwD. Office of Chief Commissioner and the Office of State Commissioners of Persons with Disabilities have been given more powers. Broad-based Central & State Advisory Boards on Disability are to be set up to serve as apex policy-making bodies at the Central and State level.
• The state government should lay down the standards of accessibility for the physical environment, transportation, information and communications, including appropriate technologies and systems, and other facilities and services provided to the public in urban and rural areas.

For more detailed information about RPWD-Act 2016 India, readers can go through the Gazette of India.

THE MENTAL HEALTHCARE ACT, 2017

Mental health legislation plays an important role in implementing effective mental health services, particularly by utilizing political and popular will to reinforce national mental health policies. Enactment of mental health legislation can improve funding of mental health services.

Legislation can also create enforceable standards for high quality medical care, improve access to care, and protect civil, political, social and economic rights of mentally-ill individuals, including a right of access to education, housing, employment and social security.

The Mental Health Act, 1987 was repealed in 2018 and the new Act is The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 (The Ministry of Law and Justice, 2017). The Mental Health Act 1987 provided legal provision for healthcare of persons with mental illness requiring inpatient treatment. Mental Healthcare Act 2017, support patient autonomy, dignity, rights and choices during mental healthcare period.

“The Mental Healthcare Act is to provide for mental healthcare for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of people with mental illness during delivery of mental healthcare and services and for matters connected therewith or in-cidental thereto”

Features of The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 :

1. Decriminalization of suicide : 
2. Restriction on use of Electro-convulsive therapy and Psychosurgery.
3. Special clause for women and children related to admission, treatment, sanitation and personal hygiene.
4. Nominated representative by mentally ill person.
5. Provision of advanced directives for mentally ill person, which are within regulations made by central authority.
6. Rights of person with mental illness : 
1. Right to equality and non-discrimination.
2. Right to access and get treatment from mental health services funded by government.
3. Poverty or below poverty line or homeless person shall be entitled to mental health treatment and services free of charge.
4. Right to information and right to confidentiality related to patient's nature of illness, treatment and about provisions of this Act is provided to the mentally ill person and their nominated representative.

Under the Mental Health Act, 1987 : mentally ill person are entitled to the following rights : (Below are few mentioned rights of mentally ill person)

1) A right to be admitted, treated and cared in a psychiatric hospital or psychiatric nursing home maintained by government for treatment of mentally ill person. They should not be subjected to any indignity or cruelty.

2) Even mentally ill prisoners and minors have right to treatment in psychiatry hospitals or psychiatric nursing homes of the government.

3) Minors under the age of 16 years, persons addicted to alcohol or other drugs which lead to behavioural changes and those havinf being guilty for offence are entitled to admission, treatment and care in separate psychiatric hospital maintained by government.

4) Mentally ill persons have the right to be regulated, directed and coordinated mental health services from the government.

5) Mentally ill person have right to get discharged from hospitals when cured. Any mentally ill person should not be denied of any payments related to special allowances, pensions, or gratuity from government.

Schemes for the disabled:

1. Divyanjan Swavalamban Yojana-

The purpose of Divyangjan Swavalamban Yojana is to make the concessional benefit available for the people who are specially-abled as per the rules of the PwD Act, 2016.  The main objective of the Scheme is to assist the needy disabled persons by providing concessional loan for economic and overall empowerment.  

This scheme provides concessional credits for benefits of PwD for :

• Starting any activity contributing directly or indirectly in the income generation or helping PwD in their overall process of empowerment.
• Pursuing higher education after class 12th (UG, PG,Professional courses and other courses approved by UGC/AICTE/ICAR/Government etc).
• Pursuing vocational or skill development (ITI, Diploma any other course leading to enhancement of employment or self employment)
• Purchase and/or fitment of any assistive device(s)/customization/retrofitting or conversion of available machine, equipment, vehicle to disabled friendly mode.

With the help of this scheme, differently-abled people can:

• Look to start something, which will directly or indirectly help him/her financially or will provide better opportunities to improve their life.
• Continue study even after completing his schooling which will improve his educational qualifications.
• Improve his vocation and skill set by taking the necessary courses which will advance his employment opportunities.

• Buy or customize his disability-friendly vehicle with better accessories that will help in his day to day activities a little bit more.
• This scheme provides loan facility to the visually impaired so that they can buy the items which are necessary for the betterment of their lives.
• This financial aid provided by the NHFDC provides banking facilities for PwD to give loans at a very nominal per annum.

2. Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)-

The government introduced the DDRS as one of the schemes for the disabled in India to help the specially-abled people perform the tasks which help in creating a better environment for them and also ensures that PwD gets similar opportunities to empower themselves like all the other people thus provide social justice and equity. 

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment funds DDRS which is available for all the listed institutions and organizations. This scheme has been established under The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995. Its objectives are –

• To increase the opportunity to study at every level and ways, to increase their chances of professional and vocational opportunities, which will then lead them to get proper occupations thus achieving financial independence.
• To build facilities that support activities to lighten the mood and give relaxation, promote the culture of that place, and ensuring that they are socially inclusive, the performance of creative arts, sports, and also going for a small trip to somewhere or traveling allowance.
• To provide help and making sure that the people have proper and respectable places to stay and lead a happy life in the Govt Rehabilitation Homes.

To facilitate delivery of various services to persons with disabilities by voluntary organizations, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is administering DDRS scheme and providing grants-in-aid to NGOs for the projects related to preschool and early intervention and training, sheltered workshop, home based rehabilitation, vocational training center, grants for purchase of vehicle, construction of buildings, half-way homes for psychosocial rehab, special education etc.

3. Assistance for Disabled Persons (ADIP) : 

ADIP scheme was initiated by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, to help the disabled people to purchase various aids and accessories at affordable price, which are required for to their daily life. These appliances and aids may promote the physical, social and psychological rehabilitation of the disabled persons. Assistive devices are given to PwDs with an aim to improve their independent functioning, and to arrest the extent of disability and occurrence of secondary disability. 

The following aids and appliances may be allowed for each type of disability :

• Locomotor Disability or multiple disability : mobility aids, surgical footwears, ADL devices, motoroized tricycle and wheelchairs MCR chappals.
• Visual disability : braille writing equipment, communication equipment, low vision aid, accessible mobile phones, braille note talker etc.
• Hearing disability : hearing aids, educational kits, assistive and alarm devices, cochlear implant.

This scheme helps the PwD to get the latest and enhanced products that help them to have a more fruitful life, it improves their physical abilities, increases their social acceptance thus improves their overall mental health. These sophisticated aids are scientifically created to meet the individual needs of the user, which significantly reduces the impact of their disabilities and gives them a chance to become financially independent. These aids & appliances are made according to the specifications laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards, thus they provide the maximum help possible. The National Institutes under this ministry, ALIMCO, and NGOs help in implementing this scheme.

4. Accessible India Campaign : 

Accessible India Campaign which is also known as Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan was launched by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) across the entire nation to provide the PwDs with universal accessibility like built Environment, Transport, and Information & Communication Technology (ICT) ecosystem.

The campaign is based on the principles of Social Model of Disability, that disability is caused by the way society is organised, and not the person’s limitations and impairments. A barrier-free environment facilitates equal participation in all the activities and promotes an independent, productive and dignified way of life.  

Following are its important parts-

1) Build Environment Accessibility : To make the environment around us physically accessible to everyone, steps need to be taken to remove obstacles in both indoor and outdoor facilities that include schools, workplaces, and footpaths. Ramps should be made; railings should be installed where necessary thus providing free movement along with necessary security measures.

2) Transportation System Accessibility : Another important part of independent life is transportation, on which everyone depends to move around. All kinds of travels like air travel, trains, taxis, and buses should be made accessible for PwDs.

3) Information and Communication Eco-System Accessibility : Having access to information is one of the basic needs of everyone in society, so information should be made available to all without any kind of discrimination. This can range from doing the basics as reading the price of a product to reading books by great people, from physically entering a hall to being able to walk around the park on his own.

5. Special Employment exchange program :

This act provides job vacancy information and updates for person with disabilities. The educated /literate disabled person are at liberty to register their names seeking employment. There are employment exchange office in every state that helps to provide employment to person with disabilities.

The Person with Disability Act, 1995 recognized the need for economic empowerment for PwDs and has several provision for the same. Various sections related to PwDs employment are implemented namely identification of post for PwD, reservation of post, vacancies in poverty alleviation scheme, inventive to employers to ensure 5% workers are PwDs.

The appropriate Government may, by notification, require that from such date as may be specified, by notification, the employer in every establishment shall furnish such information or return as may be prescribed in relation to vacancies appointed for persons with disability that have occurred or are about to occur in that establishment to such Special Employment Exchange as may be prescribed and the establishment shall thereupon comply with such requisition.

The appropriate Governments and local authorities shall by notification formulate schemes for ensuring employment of persons with disabilities, and such schemes may provide for- 

(a) the training and welfare of persons with disabilities;

(b) the relaxation of upper age limit;

(c) regulating the employment;

(d) health and safety measures and creation of a non-handicapping environment in places where persons with disabilities are employed;

(e) the manner in which and the persons by whom the cost of operating the schemes is to be defrayed; and

(f) constituting the authority responsible for the administration of the scheme.

Thankyou for reading !!!

Dr. Ashwini Sangar, Dr.Sheetal Tatar-Dhande, Dr Pallavi Khadse-Kolhe