It is estimated that 70-80 million Indians live with physical or intellectual disabilities. In 1995, based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, India enacted the ‘Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act’, to empower persons with disabilities to be part of the social mainstream. The Act was enhanced in 2016. However, like many other welfare laws in India, implementation has been uneven.
Our organisation, the Advocates for Public Justice Foundation, is focussed on building capacity amongst persons with disabilities and their organisations for affirmative action. Our Disability Law Initiative project takes recourse to impact litigation and provides legal awareness and training to ensure that the Act is implemented in letter and spirit to its fullest extent. We have secured several landmark judgements from the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court.
We believe it is important to enable people with disabilities to live full lives. We look at what we do as justice, not charity – and that is the way we would implore anyone to look at affirmative action and related DEI efforts.
We are trying to build, in the remarkable words of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court, “a generation of disabled people in India which regards as its birthright access to the full panoply of constitutional entitlements and robust statutory rights geared to meet their unique needs and conducive societal conditions needed for them to flourish and to truly become co-equal participants in all facets of life.”
I veered away from corporate life in America several years ago to study law and set up a non-profit Public Interest Law initiative in India. More by accident than design, I came across the opportunity to focus on disability law as an anchor project.
Protecting and promoting the rights of people with disabilities (PwD), so that any such person may not be marginalised, and have every opportunity to take part in the social mainstream is a pressing issue of public interest in India. According to the last government census in 2011, there were 21 million PwD in India. However, the World Bank estimates it closer to 70-80 million people, with the difference arising from the fact that the Indian census counted physical disabilities such as vision, hearing, and orthopedic impairments, but did not include other disabilities e.g., mental illness, autism, and learning disabilities. In my opinion, no conscientious country or society can allow such a large and disadvantaged section of the population to be left behind.
Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in 1995, India enacted the ‘Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act’ to empower PwD. It comprised inclusive schooling, small but very enabling reservations in higher education and public employment, and a guarantee that public infrastructure and facilities would be equally accessible to persons with disabilities. The latest enhancement to this Act in 2016 enumerates as many as 21 different types of disabilities and takes the concept of affirmative action to a higher and more holistic level. However, like many such laws in India, implementation remains uneven unless pressed for by concerned people and organisations in civil society.
To realise positive measures for disabled persons, our organisation, the Advocates for Public Justice Foundation, embarked on the Disability Law Initiative project. Over the years, we have been fortunate to represent disabled persons and their organisations in some of the most impactful cases affecting their rights and entitlements. For instance, we have obtained directions from High Courts and the Supreme Court for governments to print school textbooks in Braille for blind children, to provide relaxations in qualifying standards for engineering and medical education for students with disabilities, and to conduct mass recruitment drives in public sector employment to realise the disability quota. In recent times, we have secured landmark judgments from the Supreme Court holding that reservations are to be provided in promotion so that PwD do not stagnate, and that reasonable adjustments are to be provided to enable them to live life fully.
A Gratifying Work, and a Call to Capacity Building
I do not view these developments merely from the lens of dry legal activity. What has been most gratifying to see is the sincerity and eagerness with which PwD pursue their sense of “justice, not charity.” That is why, as an organisation, we place emphasis on building capacity amongst persons with disabilities and their organisations for affirmative action. We do this by amplifying and communicating the potential of disability law to the community at large – by knowledge sharing through our web portal, conducting virtual nationwide workshops, and disseminating important information through the internet and social media. As remarkably noted recently by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court, in a case presented by our Disability Law Initiative project, the goal is nothing short of “…creating the RPwD (Rights of Persons with Disabilities) generation in India…A generation of disabled people in India which regards as its birthright access to the full panoply of constitutional entitlements, robust statutory rights geared to meet their unique needs, and conducive societal conditions needed for them to flourish and to truly become co-equal participants in all facets of life.”
Rajan Mani
Executive Director, Advocates for Public Justice Foundation
rajanm137@gmail.com, www.disabilitylaw.org.in
Note: This letter is a part of ‘Vividh’- our bi-annual newsletter on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). To read the full newsletter click here.
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