Disabled Rights advocacy group formulates 5 point agenda : INDIA

Urging India to take lead the cause of the disabled, a coalition of NGOs from over 15 states have come up with a draft recommendation demanding integration of disability in the broader national and global discourse.

Disability has not been included in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of 2000, which is nearing end of its time-frame in the year 2015. Therefore, rights activists say it is better to focus on evolving a new framework rather than dwelling upon the "shortfalls in the MDG."

"We live in the 21st century India where many disabled people still have to crawl through a mess to reach the toilet. Renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking suffers from one of the most incapacitating disorders in the world and yet he lives with dignity lent by society. Can we ever imagine a Hawking in India?" says director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), Javed Abidi.

Therefore in their bid for dignified living for the disabled and urging India to be in the driver's seat in this cause, NCPEDP and NGO 'Wada Na Todo', after consultations, have come up with a five-point recommendation to engage, enable and integrate disability in the post-2015 development framework agenda.

It includes, enabling environment with accessibility and opportunity to engage including electronic and ICT facilities; education emphasising capacity building; health with rehabilitation; employment; and social security that means not just pensions but an enabling atmosphere.

"These recommendations will soon be sent to the central government and eventually to the UN. Since a high-level meet is slated in September at the UN headquarters, I wonder if India would also represent itself and present its views on disability," he says.

At a two-day event 'Consultation on Disability and Post-2015 Agenda' held earlier this week, activists said since, it has "been left out" of the MDGs they would be focusing on the post-2015 agenda so that "no further barriers be created in the name of development".

"We want to ensure that development aid and international cooperation create no further barriers for differently abled people. A simple thing like the floor-height of a bus or a bus shelter that has a ramp but has a billboard put in front of it might just negate the earlier work and create further barriers," he says.

There are estimated 1 billion disabled persons in the world, activists say.

 

Source : Business Standard Via PTI , 30th May 2013