How technology can help India’s urban centres become disabled friendly

 

Creating a fully inclusive and accessible India will require behavioural changes, capacity building, investments in accessible infrastructure and inclusive and accessible innovations. This will help inform policies and systems for the country's progress towards an equitable urban future.

Persons with disabilities face many challenges in participating fully in urban life. An enabling environment, with inclusive infrastructure, is needed to allow them the same opportunities to enjoy cultural, economic, and social life as non-disabled persons. This includes things many of us take for granted, like the freedom to move independently and access places of work, education and sports.

Take, for instance, Manasi Joshi, a para-badminton player, who underwent a double leg amputation following a road accident at age 22. Her strong will and determination were complemented by an accessible built environment and the availability of assistive technology. These not only helped her overcome obstacles she faced in everyday tasks, but also encouraged her to realise her dream of playing professional badminton, which she now competes in at the highest international level. While everyone cannot be a world champion, removing barriers can give us all the chance to reach our full potential.

Two mega-trends make the need for inclusive cities increasingly urgent. First, India is urbanising rapidly and is projected to add four new megacities by 2030. The country’s urban population is estimated to cross 675 million. According to the 2011 Census, one in three persons with disabilities in India or roughly eight million people already live in cities. Second, the number of persons with recognised disabilities as a share of the population could rise due to disaster and climate risks, demographic changes and broader definitions of disability in line with global norms.

One powerful solution to these challenges lies in innovative technology and ICT. These are key to ensuring an inclusive urban transformation and essential for improving and increasing the quality of life of all citizens. Nowhere is this more evident than in India, where a world-class digital governance system and dynamic tech sector are converging to deliver inclusive prosperity and resilience. This spirit of solidarity and inclusivity is reflected in India’s G20 presidency theme of One Earth, One Family and One Future.

Innovations that promote inclusivity are often perceived as unprofitable by investors. Here, the role of the state becomes critical for promoting an ecosystem for transformative technologies, especially where the return on investment may be difficult to measure.

To enhance the ecosystem for assistive technology and inclusive solutions, the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) in partnership with the UN in India hosted the first edition of the Smart Solutions Challenge and Inclusive Cities Awards in 2022. It helped in crowd-sourcing tech-based solutions and innovations for addressing city-level accessibility and inclusion challenges.

Smart cities like Bhubaneswar have deployed innovative transport and mobility solutions, showcasing how technology is being leveraged by cities to improve the lives of vulnerable communities. Several solutions and assistive technologies such as Fifth Sense, IncluMaps, AxcessAble and myUDAAN are supporting independent living for persons with disabilities. Initiatives like these and many others have the potential to help cities localise innovations for inclusive urbanisation. Many of these solutions have utilised frontier technologies like AI and machine learning extensively to contextualise solutions.

This is reflected in the Government of India’s development agenda and the globally agreed SDG targets on harnessing and maximising the potential of technological innovations and entrepreneurship. As part of its G20 Presidency, India has initiated the Start-up 20 Engagement Group to provide a global platform to enable the start-up ecosystem across the member nations. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has also launched the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance’ (G20-DIA) to showcase innovative solutions and create an alliance of players in the innovation ecosystem. And ‘Catalysing Digital Urban Futures’, one of the priority themes for Urban-20 Engagement Group under G20, seeks to discuss how data and technology can be best utilised for making city management more effective and inclusive.

Creating an inclusive and accessible India will require behavioural changes, capacity building, investments in accessible infrastructure and inclusive and accessible innovations. This will help inform policies for the country’s progress towards an equitable urban future as envisioned for the Amrit Kaal — an inclusive, accessible, safe, resilient, and sustainable India@2047. Many more people like Manasi Joshi will be empowered to make the country proud, and all of India will benefit from a society that employs its full range of talent.

Written by Shombi Sharp, Hitesh Vaidya

Source: Indian Express, 12/06/23

Long road: Editorial on the plight of differently abled persons

 The road to inclusion is often long and winding. India has undertaken legal measures to empower the differently abled in the past few years: the  enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act in 2016 is one example. But a revised, comprehensive strategy that would address current needs and challenges is long overdue. The Indian population of PwDs is estimated to be roughly 3 crore. Among them, 1.3 crore are employable. But data show that only 34 lakh PwDs are employed across different sectors. Alarmingly, only 5 per cent of them are graduates. The figures suggest that the implementation of the provisions of the RPwD Act have been tardy in the spheres of employment and education. There are other policy failures. The Centre launched the Accessible India campaign in 2015 to create a barrier-free environment to grant accessibility to public resources and dignified living for this constituency. But a recent report illustrated that a meagre 8 per cent of public buses are partially accessible to the differently-abled, while only 48 per cent of government buildings are such. A 2020 RTI report revealed that about 19 states do not even have dedicated toilets for the disabled community. Accessibility to crucial amenities — a civil right — remains a pipe dream evidently. 

Hearteningly, the recently-released draft national policy attempts to address several of these pressing concerns. It envisions a dynamic database that will provide information on a real-time basis. It also identifies areas of intervention and reiterates the government’s commitment to institutional mechanisms. The intentions are noble but this is not to say that the draft is water-tight given several glaring omissions. Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities — India is a signatory — mandates political representation, something that the draft policy fails to take cognisance of. Further, it fails to plug the deficiencies in the public procurement laws that are necessary to augment disabled-friendly infrastructure. Additional budgetary allocation of 25 per cent has remained unaddressed as well. These lapses reveal an old malaise: the refusal of successive governments to move past rhetoric and work towards an integrated approach. Regular audits and periodic inspections of infrastructure, public outreach programmes, and the creation of a greater number of disabled-friendly organisations must be encouraged to ma

Source: The Telegraph, 25/07/22

New WHO report on assistive technology for disabled provides a roadmap for India

 

Rajib Dasgupta, Shweta Sharma, Balram Bhargava write: The health system’s responsibility in providing equitable access to assistive technology, just as for essential medicines and vaccines, is increasingly being recognised

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force in May 2008 to bring to centrestage disability as an intersection of health, human rights and development priority. Subsequently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank jointly produced the World Report on Disability in 2011 to provide evidence for innovative policies and programmes.

In his foreword to this report, Stephen Hawking — who had motor neurone disease — noted that while persons with disabilities face attitudinal, physical and financial barriers, he had been fortunate in having the aid of computer experts who supported him with an assisted communication system and a speech synthesiser which enabled him to compose lectures and papers. The aids Hawking referred to are examples of highly sophisticated assistive technology (AT) – these may include any item, piece of equipment, software programme or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities. These aids could also be “physical” products such as wheelchairs, eyeglasses, hearing aids, prostheses, walking devices or continence pads; “digital” such as software and apps that support communication and time management; or adaptations to the physical environment, for example, portable ramps or grab-rails. Different disabilities require different assistive technologies, and these are designed to help people who have difficulty speaking, typing, writing, remembering, seeing, hearing, learning, or walking.

A billion people globally are currently estimated to be in need of assistive technology (AT); this is projected to double by 2050. Drawing upon the World Report on Disability 2011, the 71st World Health Assembly resolved on May 26, 2018 to prepare a global report on effective access to assistive technology by 2021. There were two core concerns: One, 90 per cent of those who need assistive technology do not have access to it, and two, the inclusion of assistive technology into health systems was essential for progress toward the targets in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) relating to Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic in the last two and a half years, it is an incredible achievement that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) jointly launched the first Global Report on Assistive Technology (GReAT) on May 16.

The GReAT report draws upon surveys conducted in 20 countries. These indicate that the proportion of the population currently using at least one assistive product ranges from less than 3 per cent to about 70 per cent. Those reporting that they use or need at least one assistive product range from about 10 per cent to nearly 70 per cent; the extent to which these needs are met varies from about 2 per cent to nearly 90 per cent. Universal assistive technology coverage implies that everyone, everywhere receives the AT that they need without financial or any other hardship.

The barriers to access and coverage, in the context of AT, are best understood when seen from the following five parameters.

People: This is related to the age, gender, type of functional difficulty, location and socioeconomic status of those in need of AT.

Products: The range, quality, affordability and supply of assistive products continue to pose considerable challenges. Quality and standard issues such as safety, performance and durability are key concerns. Repairing, refurbishing, and reusing assistive products can be faster and more cost-effective than purchasing new ones.

Provision: The information and referral systems remain complex and services are not available across all geographies and populations. The range, quantity and quality of assistive products procured and provided, as well as the efficiency of delivered services, remain below par.

Personnel: The workforce gaps are not just about numbers but also about adequate training and education too.

Policy: A survey of more than 60 countries reported that they have at least one government ministry or authority responsible for access to AT. Almost 90 per cent of them have at least one piece of legislation on access to AT. Even then, the current levels of access imply a long road to universal AT access.

Disadvantaged groups and communities face hardships in their search for affordable quality healthcare in India and this is more so with respect to obtaining ATs and associated services — the estimated unmet need is about 70 per cent. ATs handed out in camps or as a part of social service initiatives are a sporadic activity without the use of statistics as a basis for unmet needs. Products are often sub-standard and lead to poorer health outcomes. Including assistive technology in universal health and social care services is a critical imperative. The health system’s responsibility in providing equitable access to ATs, just as for essential medicines and vaccines, is increasingly being recognised and country-level plans are being drawn up with an aim to fund and provide ATs under the UHC. Until AT solutions are integrated with the existing primary healthcare packages the current top-down approach is of limited benefit. The GReAT Report provides that roadmap

Written by Rajib Dasgupta , Shweta Sharma , Balram Bhargava

Source: Indian Express, 6/06/2022

Why central services cannot be exempted from reservation for disabled

 In the judgment delivered late last year in Ravinder Kumar Dhariwal and Anr. v. Union of India and Ors., the Supreme Court dealt with the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against a mentally-ill CRPF employee. While concluding that the initiation of the proceedings against the employee was indirectly discriminatory, the Court held that it will have to develop, in an appropriate case, the standard of justification for evaluating the government’s decision to exclude any establishment from the nondiscrimination guarantee contained in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 [RPwD Act].

A case that the SC is currently hearing (National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled v. Department of Empowerment for Persons with Disabilities and Ors.) might just offer it the opportunity to enunciate this standard. The petitioner has challenged a notification issued by the Department of Empowerment for Persons with Disabilities (Department). The impugned notification exempts all categories of posts in the Indian Police Service, the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli Police Service, as well as the Indian Railway Protection Force Service from the mandated 4 per cent reservation for persons with disabilities under the RPwD Act.

This notification is legally and constitutionally untenable. First, on the same day as the issuing of the impugned notification, the Department also issued another notification exempting from the purview of reservation under the RPwD Act posts only of “combatant” nature in the paramilitary police. This classification between combat and non-combat posts was premised on a clear recognition of the fact that persons with disabilities are capable of occupying non-combat posts in the central forces. The Department has offered no justification as to why this classification would not hold good as regards the services covered in the impugned notification.

Second, in an office memorandum issued in January last year, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had identified a range of ministerial/civilian posts as being suitable for reservation for the disabled. The impugned notification is in the teeth of this identification exercise, by virtue of its blanket character. Further, on November 22, 2021, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs released Draft Accessibility Standards/Guidelines for built infrastructure under its purview (police stations, prisons and disaster mitigation centres) and services associated with them. These Draft Standards state that the police staff on civil duty could be persons with disabilities. Curiously, even as the Centre appears committed to creating a more disabled-friendly police service, it has foreclosed the possibility of the disabled being part of the police force through the impugned notification.

Third, the impugned notification appears to be a colourable exercise of power. This is because, as per the RPwD Act, the grant of any exemption has to be preceded by consultation with the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities. It is common knowledge that the office of the chief commissioner has been lying vacant for many years, with the secretary in the Department officiating in that role. Further, in the debate in Parliament at the time of the passage of the RPwD Act, an exchange between Sitaram Yechury and the then Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment is revealing. Yechury had feared that the central government would use the power granted to it under the RPwD Act to exempt people with disabilities from seeking reservation for posts that they are perfectly capable of occupying. The minister had assured that this concern would be addressed in the rules. By issuing the Impugned Notification, the Department has belied that assurance

In a heartening development, on March 25, the SC passed an interim order, allowing physically disabled persons who have cleared the civil services (mains) exam to provisionally apply for posts in the IPS, IRPFS and DANIPS, considering this request to be “just and reasonable”. The Court has asked the government to explain its stance on the impugned notification and listed the matter for April 18.

This case presents the SC with the opportunity to rule that the disabled are not a monolithic entity. Every disabled person is different, and it is unfair to paint all disabled people with the same broad brush, based on a stereotypical understanding of what they can do. Let us hope that the Court recognises that the disabled have the right to exist and work in the world just like their able-bodied counterparts.

Written by Rahul Bajaj , Nishtha Gupta

Source: Indian Express, 11/04/22

Our understanding of disability must expand to include people with invisible disabilities

The criteria and process for identifying people and certifying people with disability must find processes to recognise the disability of people with fluctuating disability such as that experienced by many with severe mental illness.

People with invisible disabilities continue to be excluded from participation and inclusion by the general public, the media and even the disability movement. Imagine two people waiting at a bus stop. The bus pulls up and someone jumps out with a small box to create an additional step. The woman using crutches uses the step, pulls herself up with the handrail, and is offered a seat in the bus. The bus pulls away. Left behind is the man with a paralysing anxiety disability which stops him from using any public transport. Both are people have disabilities, yet we naturally assume that the person with crutches is the only disabled one.

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The United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disability tells us that persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full participation in society on an equal basis with others. The Rights of persons with Disability Act of India, 2016, also clarifies that disability includes people with mental illness, epilepsy, intellectual impairment and other disabilities which are not evident to a casual observer.

People who cannot participate fully in society include those with problems such as renal failure, chronic back pain, epilepsy, mental illness and intellectual disability. They are a large proportion of the millions of Indian people who live with a disability. They are disabled as much by the structures that limit their ability to participate such as schooling that relies exclusively on literacy and thus limits learning opportunities for learning for young people with intellectual disability. Such as public attitudes where people shun and avoid conversation with a person with a psycho-social disability who may be dressed in an unusual way.

This year the United Nations has declared the theme for World Disability Day is “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”. Many people with disabilities cannot be identified by a casual observer as they don’t have the identity ‘badges’ of a wheelchair, or a crutch, or a hearing aid. People with epilepsy without access to medication cannot safely cross a road alone yet who will identify and help them? People with intellectual disability can get lost in a train station or city streets yet are not immediately recognised as disabled.

Within the disability movement and disability networks in India and across the world, it is evident that there a hierarchy of disability. People with invisible and psycho-social disabilities are not equally included, represented or given equal voice or resources. Within India, disabled persons organisations are typically led and represented by men who use crutches and wheelchairs. Could it be that the call for inclusiveness, empowerment and equality this year is one that the disability movement could address within its ranks? How could disabled people’s organisations more actively include people with psycho-social disability or chronic pain? How could disability networks ensure they speak for the needs of people with invisible disabilities?

Inclusion and empowerment of people with visible and invisible disabilities must include policy action by the Ministry of Social Empowerment and Justice. The criteria and process for identifying people and certifying people with disability must find processes to recognise the disability of people with fluctuating disability such as that experienced by many with severe mental illness. It must also include active responses to include people with invisible disabilities from agencies working in Inclusive sports, inclusive sanitation and inclusive community-based development are the catch-cries of organisations working in disability. Yet how well does this ‘inclusive’ brand include the people with invisible disabilities? International Disability Day this year must actively represent people with epilepsy, mental illness and intellectual impairment and chronic pain.

Source: Indian Express, 3/12/2018

Disability is not a defining feature

Characters with disabilities in Hindi cinema have come a long way from subjects to be pitied or laughed at

I loved the trailer of the movie Zero . It’s a Shah Rukh Khan movie that also features Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif. Mr. Khan plays a dwarf. Ms. Sharma plays a woman with cerebral palsy using a wheelchair. But it doesn’t seem to be a movie about disability in the traditional Indian sense. More on that later.

Disability that’s in your face

The first known movie to feature disability in a meaningful way in Hindi cinema was Jeevan Naiya (1936). In this movie, the lead character abandons his wife on learning that she belongs to a family of dancers. Later, he is blinded in an accident and is nursed by a woman who he eventually falls in love with. Of course that woman is his wife. Karma comes a full circle.

And that’s what continued in subsequent films: either karma and its lessons or pity. In Sholay (1975), Thakur, the police officer (Sanjeev Kumar) has his arms amputated by the infamous Gabbar (Amjad Khan). Thakur hires two mercenaries to avenge Gabbar and his gang. This leads to a final duel between Gabbar and Thakur. And what does Thakur do? He crushes Gabbar’s arms with spikes. Thakur probably thought that living with a disability is worse than dying.

Khamoshi (1996) was about deaf parents, their daughter and their inability to allow her to move on. Taare Zameen Par (2007) and Black (2005) focused on the schooling challenges of the dyslexic, and the deaf and blind, respectively. Two other big-ticket movies with disabled characters in the recent past have beenMargarita With a Straw (2015), which explored the sexuality of a woman with cerebral palsy, and Guzaarish (2010), which was the story of a paralysed magician-turned-radio jockey and his legal battle to end his life. What’s common in all these movies is that disability is in your face. It’s the overarching theme of the movie. I loved the storytelling in these films. However, disability is what defined them. And let’s admit it: disability is not the sexiest theme to bring in people to the theatres.

Of course there is another category too, where disabled characters provide comic respite at the cost of their disability. However, I shall refrain from commenting on it to not give these highly offensive movies any undue attention.

So why am I so excited about Zero ? Going by the trailer, Mr. Khan, who plays a dwarf, is shown the photo of a girl played by Ms. Sharma. He’s immediately smitten and decides to attend an event where she’s speaking. Only on seeing her in person does he realise that she has cerebral palsy and, as a result, is on a wheelchair. He’s sad but nevertheless continues to pursue her and eventually succeeds.

He confesses to having a safe, stable life if he marries her. The trailer up to this point looks like the quintessential Bollywood movie. Dwarf meets wheelchair, they fall in love and live happily ever after. Except we live in the 21st century. This isn’t the Raju (Raj Kapoor) from Mera Naam Joker being a circus clown collecting a bunch of heartbreaks in the process. Mr. Khan doesn’t want to just live life. He wants to live it king size. He wants adventure. Maybe he even wants to be a moron. Not satisfied with cerebral palsy-stricken Ms. Sharma, he pursues Ms. Kaif who seems to be playing a silver screen actor with millions of fans. They meet and they kiss (perhaps the Indian Censor Board didn’t let them take things further). And when things go wrong, she calls him “Zero” and he presumably runs back to Ms. Sharma — but she is no helpless, egoless wheelchair-user waiting to have him back in her life. She seems angry and wants her revenge. “The relationship is now on an equal footing,” she says, glaring into the camera.

The characters are no ‘divine’ individuals seeking sympathy. The government might have called the disabled “ divyang ” (divine individuals), but Mr. Khan might truly be playing a divyang moron in the movie. The characters here are human beings with hopes and aspirations, shades of black and white, and happen to have disabilities. It doesn’t seem to be a movie on disability. It seems to be a love triangle with characters with disabilities.

Responding to criticism

And that is why I was so saddened to read criticism about this movie from some pockets of the disabled community. The movie was questioned for not having actors with disabilities play these roles. I do believe that the first challenge is to get people to the theatres to watch movies related to disability. Having stars of course helps. Secondly, and more importantly, these stars inadvertently become brand ambassadors of the cause. These are important issues considering that I come across middle-aged government engineers, police officers and bureaucrats who claim to have never come across a person with a disability even today. If big stars will get them to the theatres, so be it.

Besides, I do find the idea that only actors with disabilities can portray characters with disabilities bizarre. We didn’t complain that Dangal didn’t have wrestlers playing wrestlers, or that Sanju didn’t have Sanjay Dutt playing Sanjay Dutt, or that an alien didn’t star in PK. What we need is for actors to be properly sensitised to the role they’re signing up for. Daniel Day-Lewis got into the skin of his character, Christy Brown, who had cerebral palsy in My Left Foot . He did this not just by interacting with people with the disability but by actually refusing to leave his wheelchair through the shoot of the film. He had to be carried around by crew members and insisted on being spoon-fed. The movie was critically acclaimed and he won an Oscar for it.

Breaking barriers

Persons with disabilities in India are breaking barriers. The next generation wants no sympathy. Varun Khullar was paralysed waist down after an accident in Manali in 2014. The accident forced him to start using a wheelchair but didn’t stop him from accomplishing his dreams. He studied music and started deejaying at parties. He is the resident DJ at a club in New Delhi. Divyanshu Ganatra was just 19 when glaucoma claimed his eyesight. He runs an adventure sport company. Nidhi Goyal was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disorder at the age of 15. She converted her subsequent dating misadventures into an internationally acclaimed stand-up comedy sketch.

I am glad that Hindi cinema is learning from society and going beyond looking at characters with disabilities as either subjects to be pitied or laughed at.

Nipun Malhotra is a wheelchair user. He’s founder, Wheels For Life (www.wheelsforlife.in) and CEO, Nipman Foundation. Twitter: @nipunmalhotra. Email: nipun@nipunmalhotra.com

Source: The Hindu, 3/12/2018

Struggling with cancer, this JNU professor writes a book examining progress in promotion research on disability studies

Professor Karna, a disability right activist, has penned the book titled Curriculum Development on Disability Studies. For the past 18 months, he has been struggling with cancer.

Gajendra Narayan Karna, a JNU professor, who was affected by polio at the age of three, has written a book critically examining the progress made in promoting teaching and research on disability studies. He said the UGC has not yet taken the initiative to constitute a model curriculum development committee on disability studies for its advancement.

Karna who is also a disability right activist, has penned the book titled Curriculum Development on Disability Studies.

For the past 18 months, he has been struggling with cancer.

The discipline of disability studies was granted recognition as an academic discipline by the ministry of human resource development in September 2005, he said.

The University Grants Commission was directed to extend support to universities and colleges in setting up special department or centre on disability studies as also instituting Rajiv Gandhi Chair in Disability Studies in central universities, Karna added.

It was further reinforced by the 11th five-year plan in working group on disability.

“Notwithstanding all these developments, the UGC has not taken as yet even the basic initiative of constituting a model curriculum development committee on disability studies (as has been done in the case of Gandhian studies, human rights, dalit studies and other academic disciplines),” he claimed.

Meanwhile, more than 17 universities/academic institutions (including TISS, IGNOU, JNU and DU) have moved towards launching disability studies programmes, though in a haphazard manner because of a lack of model curriculum, he claimed.

He said his book is intended to examine critically the progress made with regard to promotion of teaching and research on disability studies, and thereby attempting to develop a model curriculum on disability studies for various programmes of studies being offered by Indian universities and academic institutions.

Source: Hindustan Times, 26/10/2018

Breach the wall of silence: Give State recognition to Indian Sign Language

The country’s population of deaf and speech disabled remains invisible at institutions of higher learning since most of them even fail to even complete school

Between 2007 and 2012, while studying at Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College and the Delhi School of Economics, Nipun Malhotra, chief executive of Nipman Foundation, doesn’t remember coming across any deaf students. Looking back, the 31-year-old disability rights activist says the country’s population of deaf and speech disabled remains invisible at institutions of higher learning since most of them even fail to even complete school.

The only time people like us get to view someone using sign language is during news bulletins on Doordarshan or when we watch the Independence Day or Republic Day on the national broadcaster with a sign language interpreter commentating about the event. A World Health Organization report says around 63 million people in India suffer from either complete or partial deafness, and of these, at least 50 lakh are children. One barrier standing before the country’s deaf population is the threadbare infrastructure of educational facilities such as specialised schools. The country only has about 700 schools which teach sign language. Another big impediment is the State’s reluctance to provide the official language status to Indian Sign Language (ISL), a collection of visual cues, hand gestures and devices which are used as a communicative mechanism by people with hearing or speech impairments to interact with each other. In this regard, we lag behind nations such as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Sri Lanka, USA and Zimbabwe, among others. Closer home, Nepal has made a special provision in Article 31(4) of its Constitution to specifically recognise sign language as a means through which education could be provided to hearing or speech impaired persons.

Last week, the Delhi High Court issued a notice listing a PIL filed by Nipun Malhotra seeking official recognition of ISL. Finally, the government, too, appears to be waking up to this. On September 23, minister of state for social justice and empowerment Krishan Pal Singh Gurjar said he would write to home minister Rajnath Singh to request that ISL be made an official language. The minister’s initiative is welcome. This will bring India’s hearing-impaired community a step closer to having their only method of interaction recognised by the government. Once it is listed as an official language, the Union government can promote and develop sign language in an official capacity. It can then be used to conduct UPSC examinations, among others, and qualify for printing on currency notes.

In a country as linguistically and culturally diverse as India, the gestures used in sign language vary with every region. So, the Sign Language Research and Training Centre backed by the government is working towards codifying it. Last year, a project commissioned by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment put together an online dictionary with than 7,000 signs that deal with words used in academic, medical, legal, technical and routine conversations by deaf people. The dictionary included videos and subtitles to facilitate easier comprehension and was accompanied with photo illustrations and information about the usage of the corresponding English and Hindi word.

There are only about 250 certified sign language interpreters in India. Non-recognition of a standard language hinders schooling and a shortage of educators and can also lead to mental health issues when deaf children find it tough to communicate with their parents. Recognition of sign language could be the first step towards helping people with hearing loss fight social stigma, lack of jobs and a formal education. It’s high time we helped break this wall of silence.

aasheesh.sharma@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times, 25/09/2018

True Grit: A special girl shows what strength of character is

Anuja Jaiswal

Agra:





Defies 80% Hearing Impairment To Shine In UPSC, 2nd Yr In A Row

Twenty-six-year-old Vaishali Sharma, an MBBS from Aligarh Muslim University, cannot hear much. But she has trained herself to lipread. Even though she suffers from 80% hearing impairment, it has not stopped her from realising her dreams.With 824 marks (out of 2,025) in last year's civil services examination, Vaishali ranked second in the physical disability category-3 but wasn't selected because examiners found her to be “temporarily unfit“ as she was overweight. Candidates need to pass a medical examination, where their BMI is also measured among other things.
Instead of tears, Vaishali decided to shed pounds and appeared in the exam again.This year, she has scored 969 marks (47%), topping the exam in the same category .
Of the 1,209 candidates who cleared UPSC this time, 44 are in the physically challenged category . Among these 44, 15 are hearing impaired, seven visually impaired and 22 suffer from locomotor disability and cerebral palsy .
Vaishali said she was heartbroken when she wasn't recruited despite losing some weight in 2016 and getting herself certified by the government's health department. Her family had wanted to move court to seek justice for her, but she was determined to prove her point “in another way“. “Though I was shocked by what had happened then, I never gave up and was sure that I would succeed again,“ she told TOI.
Vaishali said though she has been using hearing aids, it's not easy as these devices only amplify the sound and do not process the words. She also could not pursue her PG in clinical branches because of difficulty in using stethoscope and not responding to emergency phone calls.
She couldn't even attend coaching classes for her preparation for UPSC as she found understanding words in a group very difficult. “I spent long hours in the AMU li brary studying by myself.“
“I started lip reading and also observed people keenly to understand their body language and expressions,“ she said, adding that during interviews she focused on the interviewers' lips to understand what was being said. This year, she managed to score 170 marks out of 275 in the interview.
Vaishali, who had recently started working at a Mathura hospital as a junior resident, said she felt “low and frustrated“ in her childhood as she found herself “different“ from others. “ My family supported me. Whatever I have achieved today is due to their support.“
Vaishali's father is a former banker who took early retirement to focus on the career of his two daughters and a son, all of whom are medical practitioners.
Source: Times of India, 7-06-2017

1% Central Job & Education Quota for Mentally Impaired

Nidhi Sharma

New Delhi:





AHEAD OF INTERNATIONAL DAY OF DISABLED PERSONS Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill to be tabled in Rajya Sabha today; for first time govt would reserve jobs for persons with intellectual disability & mental illness

Ahead of International Day of Disabled Persons on December 3, the Narendra Modi government has paved the way for a landmark initiative ­ increase in reservation for the differentlyabled from 3% to 4% in public sector jobs and educational institutions. For the first time, the government would reserve jobs for persons with intellectual disability and mental illness.The government would introduce the Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill in Rajya Sabha on Friday ­ a day before the International Day . This would end a three-year wait for the Bill, which increases the number of disabilities from 7 to 21.The biggest initiative is increase in reservation for jobs and educational institutions.So far, jobs and places in educational institutions were reserved for three categories of disabilities ­hearing, visually and orthopaedically impaired and orthopaedically impaired. The three categories each got 1% reservation totaling up to 3%. Now another percentage point has been added opening up jobs and educational institutions for other categories including mental illness, intellectual disability and cerebral palsy .
The government would follow the set procedure of referring the matter to a committee, which would identify certain jobs that can be reserved for persons with intellectual disability . A senior official told ET, “There are several repetitive jobs, like in a laundry , which persons with intellectual disabilities do very well.These will be identified.“ The move to reserve jobs for people with intellectual disabilities comes after much debate within the government.
A Group of Ministers had examined the issue in detail whether jobs could be entrusted to persons with mental illness. The matter was then referred to Prime Minister's Office, which also took independent views from medical and disability experts. The final view was in favour of reserving jobs for them. The government is hoping to get political support for the Bill as both Houses are facing repeated adjournments. The Bill comes after a three-year delay . It had been introduced under UPA-II in February 2014 when the government pushed for a 5% quota for the disabled.

Source: Economic Times, 2-12-2016

Society must sensitise itself to the differently-abled

Travelling is generally a tedious process for all, because it involves reporting at the airport at least two hours before the departure of the flight, going through the security checks, having to discard objects the security personnel do not allow on the flight, etc. However, for the differently-abled, the hassles become manifold, as was seen in the case of the Paralympian Aditya Mehta, who had to take off his prosthetic and strip down during security checks at the airport in Bengaluru. On an earlier occasion too he had been asked to take off his prosthetic at Delhi airport. He had then written to the PMO and the relevant civil aviation authorities but he is still to hear from them.

This has once again brought up questions on security protocol for the differently-abled.

Before this incident, as early as 2014, several disability rights activists had given guidelines to the airports to be followed. Some of these were not forcing wheelchair users to stand for checks, not lifting wheelchair users, etc. The alternatives suggested were screening the passengers, and in seclusion. The problem can be lessened to a considerable extent by making it obligatory for the differently-abled to give an advance notice of, say, two days to the airport authorities, and arriving a little earlier than the rest.

As a matter of fact, we do have rules for the convenience of differently-abled passengers. However, nothing exempts them from security checks, which results in objectionable things happening. But there are ways of avoiding inconvenience to the differently-abled. For example, a differently-abled person can be made to go through electronic checks and not be compelled to take off his or her prosthetic. In the United States, there is legislation in this regard and both in the UK and the US there are systems and procedures governing the dignity of the differently-abled.

Apart from facing problems at airports, the differently-abled are inconvenienced in other ways also. The 2011 census says there are 21 million differently-abled persons in India and the target is to make 50% of government buildings convenient for them to use in various ways such as having wheelchair lifts, ramps, Braille signposts, etc. Constructing accessible buildings and creating mobile apps for information on inaccessible places can be made part of corporate social responsibility. But all these will remain just dreams if we do not have the right attitude towards the differently-abled and recognise that there must be enough space for them to overcome the hurdles they face.

Source: Hindustan Times, 19-102016

Half of world’s disabled children are kept out of schools: Report

At least half of the world’s 65 million school-age children with disabilities are kept out of the classroom because little to no money is budgeted for their needs, a disability rights groups said in a report on Monday.

Light for the World, a charity which supported the research, said stigma and misinformation surrounding disability as well as a lack of data on the numbers of disabled children contributed to the problem.

“People don’t see them (children with disabilities) as a worthy investment,” Nafisa Baboo, adviser for inclusive education at Light for the World, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Many think for example that there’s no point investing in their education as people with disabilities can’t work.”

The rights groups said billions of dollars of potential income from the world’s poorest countries are being lost through lack of schooling and employment for people who have disabilities.

“Children with disabilities are constantly left at the very back of the queue, and the impact on both individuals and economies can be disastrous,” Julia McGeown of Handicap International said in a statement.

The report by the International Disability and Development Consortium said the exclusion of children with disabilities was a major obstacle to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030.

In September, a report by the U.N. education and cultural agency UNESCO found that the education sector globally has been substantially underfunded, and international aid to education is declining.

“The SDGs give governments an opportunity to up their game,” said Baboo, adding that donors should prioritise efforts to reverse the decline in aid for education.

The new report urges governments to provide facilities for the education of disabled children within a mainstream system.

“Inclusive education can drastically reduce out-of-school populations, it can tackle discrimination in society, and it is considerably cheaper than segregated education,” said Baboo.

“It’s not just morally right, it’s also a smart investment.”

Source: Hindustan Times, 17-10-2016

Competing for an equal world

A tiny step to impart a sense of dignity to the efforts of para-athletes is to recognise them as differently abled, not disabled.

The Second World War is perhaps the most devastatingly transformative event of the 20th century. Not just in the way it left millions dead, with physical capital destroyed and lands rendered barren, but also in the way it left those alive, including many young people, scarred and crippled for life.

Among them were many soldiers who sustained horrific injuries. There was a need — even a moral imperative — to ensure that those who were witness to such horrors and yet survived still be contributing members of the society.

Inclusion and empowerment

It is to this period that the roots of the modern-day Paralympics can be traced. One of the ways to achieve inclusion was devised by the neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann, who organised a small sports competition for 16 World War II veterans, who had injured their spinal cords, at Stoke Mandeville hospital in July 1948. The competition was run parallel to the Olympics in order to attract attention.

In 1964, the term ‘Paralympics’ was officially used, and at the 1988 Seoul Games, the organising committees, for the first time ever, saw to it that the Olympic and Paralympic athletes competed in the same venues and participated in similar opening and closing ceremonies. In 1989, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was formed and from 1992 (Barcelona) onwards, it has closely worked with the International Olympic Committee. Post 2008, in an attempt to place both on an equal pedestal, it was decided that all cities which bid to host the Olympics will also have to host the Paralympics.

Since the days of Guttmann, Paralympic sport has no doubt evolved. Back then it was a vehicle for rehabilitation. Today it is seen as a tool for emancipation and empowerment. Yet, for all the noble intentions, there is still a question mark over what the Paralympics means today. Does it exist to display what a “disabled” person can do or it is a spectacle of elite sport? Is the emphasis on the disability or the sport?

“It’s both ways,” says Sharath M. Gayakwad, an Indian Paralympic swimmer who won six medals at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon. “They look at me as an achiever and sportsman. But otherwise it’s the deformity that’s looked at.”

“That’s why I feel education about para-sports is important,” he adds. “You need to spread awareness. In countries like Australia and the U.S. there is a separate education system. The other thing is to train the coaches. When I first sought coaching for competitive swimming, the coach didn’t know how to train me. He had to do a lot of research.”

Long road to legitimacy

This public perception of a para-athlete owes much to what is called the ‘Supercrip Model’. The description of him or her when successful is more often than not according to the common stereotypes of pity and heroism.

In The Paralympic Games: Empowerment or Side Show? by Keith Gilbert and Otto J. Schantz, an athlete is quoted as saying: “There is a popular perception that… people feel sorry for us because we’re always in a wheelchair and they figure that we can’t do much of anything anyway. Stories like this [of winning] refute that — that we can be just as creative and productive as anybody else. I mean, this guy is still working in sports!”

While it is true that the model, to a certain extent, highlights the rugged determination of an athlete, disability activists argue that this narrows expectations and stigmatises them. In the long run, it is undesirable for the athletes to see their stories depicted only under the bracket “human interest” and be packaged only in ways that are more acceptable to the “able-bodied” world.

“This issue will always be there,” says Gayakwad. “But after these medals in Rio that Mariyappan Thangavelu, Devendra Jhajharia, Deepa Malik and Varun Singh Bhati have won, it should change. In spite of being just a 19-member contingent, we have already won four medals. As a sporting achievement it is a very good.”

The trick might well be for Paralympics to secure in the eyes of the world a “separate but equal” status under the broad umbrella of the Olympic movement. However it is easier said than done. For long, Olympic sports have maintained that individuals with a deformity are not exactly excluded from qualifying for events in the Olympics. But what it does is to undermine the status of para-sports as a legitimate form of sport. For perspective, one can look at how long it took for able-bodied women to be considered “separate but equal”.

It may take a considerable amount of time for such an inclusive ideology to take root, but a tiny step through which one can impart a sense of dignity to the efforts of these athletes is by recognising them as “differently abled” and not “disabled”.

“It’s not that we can’t get things done,” says Gayakwad. “In spite of my deformed hand, I can do everything!”

sudarshan.narayanan@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: Paralympics, para-athletes, persons with disabilities

Source: The Hindu, 15-09-2016

We’re not all superhumans

The Rio 2016 Paralympics trailer is heart-wrenching but presents disability as “inspiration porn”

My social circle includes writers, photographers, designers, musicians and producers. I have always been the odd one out. I’m “that” girl from the disability and development space and I’m pretty sure none of them knows what I really do. It works just fine for me, but only till the time that tear-jerking Ted Talk comes along and my inbox gets flooded with the same link over and over again along with the clichéd comment, “thought of you when I saw this.”

Something similar happened recently when Channel 4 released its trailer for the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

Trailer talk 

The trailer is gorgeous. It hits the spot, visually and emotionally. It is slick, heart-wrenching, and it’s got real people — athletes with disabilities. The music and the beat are spot on and will maybe even make you shed a tear or two. want to like this trailer. I really do. It’s the kind of thing I want people to share because no one talks about disability, especially in India where people with disabilities constitute an invisible population owing to the lack of any kind of access. So, when a video this striking comes along, it comes with a lot of potential for giving disability the attention it deserves.

But here’s the problem. Each time I watched this video, I cringed when I heard the word ‘Superhumans’. The term is not new to the world of Paralympics. Channel 4’s commercial for the 2012 London Paralympics was called ‘Meet the Superhumans’.

A quick overview of the global disability movement will tell you how the struggle to remove the “special” syndrome continues to this day in many parts of the world. These athletes are phenomenal and at no point am I trying to undermine their hard work and determination. The real problem is with the way disability is presented — “inspiration porn” for all of us.

I remember a college lecturer recounting an incident about an extremely flustered mother of a disabled child. Taare Zameen Par (titled “Like Stars on Earth” internationally) — an Indian film about an eight-year-old dyslexic child, an underachiever who progresses to win an art competition under the guidance of a teacher who doesn’t give up on him — had just released. The mother was concerned about her son’s fate because he did not know how to paint. My lecturer, while narrating this incident, talked about the lack of a middle ground, a kind of regularity. It was either complete helplessness being an underachiever because of one’s “condition” or being special and exceptional, a superhuman.

The right terminology

Different organisations and individuals use different terminologies. While many continue to use the term “handicapped”, the world has moved on to accepting the expression “people/persons with disabilities”. We are way past the medical and charity models of disability which put the onus on the individual and the “impairment”. The focus now is on rights and removing barriers. And that is why nomenclature becomes important. We possibly cannot be talking about dignity on the one hand while using labels on the other.

The trailer has been inviting an extraordinary amount of attention across the world, which is good news because it’s about time we started talking about disability. But my fear is that it is doing to millions whatTaare Zameen Par did to the mother — taking away that middle ground.

Parul Ghosh is a disability rights professional currently consulting with the Government of India for the Accessible India Campaign.

Keywords: Rio 2016 Paralympics

Source: The Hindu, 17-08-2016