Disability Technology & News

India Govt Thwart Accessible Infrastructure

India is currently going through a Disability movement where the disability community is asserting their civic rights. The community wanting equal access to architectural places and environment. This is necessary in order to gain the same economic, social, and political opportunities with the rest of the population. The government argument in not meeting these “constitutional guarantees” is the similar to the rhetoric’s the US government used pre-ADA. I think the disability community in India should take their case to court and let the judicial branch decide this matter.

NHRC pulls up state govts on disabled-friendly infrastructure
Navhind Times on the Web: India

PTI New Delhi June 23: Pulling up state governments for non-availability of disabled-friendly infrastructure, NHRC today said economic considerations cannot be put up as excuse for not fulfilling “constitutional guarantees” to put them into place.

Terming imposition of physical and social barriers as “some of the most insidious forms of discrimination” against the differently abled, National Human Rights Commission chairperson, Mr Justice (retd) A S Anand said the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, had compiled provisions concerning barrier-free physical and transport environments.

“These measures actually draw on Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution, which guarantee access to public places and employment without discrimination of any kind,” he said at a National Conference on Disability organised by NHRC here.

“However, implementation of these arrangements has been lopsided and states often attribute this to a lack of economic capacity. Constitutional guarantees cannot be permitted to be set at naught on economic considerations,” he said.

Mr Justice Anand said there were 21.9 million differently abled persons in India — 2.13 per cent — of its population — and disability rights were a “new dimension” in the human rights framework.

There was need to develop awareness about these rights among legal practitioners, academicians and government functionaries, he said.

“With the maturation of democracy, the content of rights too expands creating a new set of obligations for duty holders. Thus, a dynamic, broad and contect specific policy on continuing education in the human rights framework is imperative,” he said.

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