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Disability News India (DNI)

Disability News India (DNI), is a disability News service dedicated to providing a quality up-to-date information to the Indian Disability. DNI's news section is updated two times a week, though we also add breaking stories as and when they occur.



Disability News India – April 2010 Issue



Dyslexic student gets extra hour but under a camera's stern gaze

Chandigarh, 26 April: On Saturday, the High Court had directed the CBSE to give the boy an extra hour to write AIEEE

Defeating the purpose of de–stressing a disabled child in the examination hall, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) ended up making the situation more stressful for a dyslexic student on Sunday.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday had directed the CBSE to give an extra hour to Pranjay Jain, who was to appear in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) on Sunday.

The candidate was given the extra one hour but he was videotaped during the exam.

Pranjay, a student of Class XII, was shocked when he went inside the examination hall in Vivek High School, Sector 38.

"I was videotaped throughout both the papers. During paper I, the camera was put on a stand in front of me and during the second paper, it was kept on a desk beside me," Pranjay said. "It was impossible to concentrate. Of the four hours, I was videotaped for almost three hours."

Pranjay's parents blamed the CBSE. "The child has been criminalised. This is a mockery of the education system, which aims at inclusive education. They have mentally traumatised the child by pin–pointing on his disability," Pranjay's father, Dr Nitin Jain, said.

He added: "The move to empower a child with disability has been undone by this act. Is this some kind of punishment given to the child who has demanded his right to education, or is this some kind of warning given to other children with similar kind of disability who dare to ask for similar rights?"

Pranjay was reportedly videotaped on the directions of the CBSE Regional Director Dr D R Yadav.

When Newsline contacted Yadav, he initially justified it by claiming that it was the High Court's order. But when he was informed that the HC had passed no such order, he said he had videotaped the student "at his own discretion".

"I can videotape whoever and wherever I want at my own discretion. I have videotaped the entire centre," Yadav said.

Later in the evening, Yadav called up Newsline and said the child was videotaped for two reasons ? because he was given one hour extra as directed by the High Court, and to ensure that there was no malpractice involved during the extra hour.

Yadav added that since no other dyslexic student took the AIEEE in the city, no candidate except Pranjay was videotaped.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com

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Jaipur NGO holds limb fitment camp in Iraq

JAIPUR, 25 April: A 22–member team of a Jaipur–based NGO that provides artificial limbs to disabled people has returned from Baghdad after holding a month–long artificial limb fitment camp there.

The Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayta Samiti (BMVSS) provided 882 Iraqis artificial limbs during the camp while 75 people were given crutches free of cost.

The founder–chief patron of BMVSS DR Mehta led the team. Two technicians were from Pakistan where BMVSS is also running a rehabilitation centre. The team returned to Jaipur earlier this week.

The camp was organised in association with a charitable body of Baghdad's Abdul Hadi Chalabi Foundation.

"In all, 882 persons were equipped with artificial limbs of whom 42 were provided artificial limbs on both their legs," Mehta said.

Mehta said the Iraqi amputees accepted and adopted the 'Jaipur Foot and the Stanford Jaipur Knee' artificial limbs because of its simple technology and its light weight. The 'Stanford Jaipur Knee' was developed by the engineering students of the prestigious US Stanford University in association with BMVSS.

Mehta said there are about 50,000 amputees in Iraq who had lost their limbs in the wars and also because of terrorist attacks, diabetes and because of various road accidents.

Mehta said Chalabi Foundation was keen to run the camp round the year to enable more people to benefit.

"We at BMVSS suggested that a few technicians from Iraq should be sent to Jaipur for training in our centre here," he said.

The BMVSS, Mehta said, would set up the centre in association with Chalabi Foundation.

He also urged the central government to bear the cost of training the Iraqi technicians. He said the camp would go a long way in strengthening India–Iraq ties.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Cochlear implant on 2–yr–old hearing impaired from birth

April 24: A group of doctors of Madras ENT Research Foundation performed intricate cochlear implant surgery on a two year old girl recently, who does not have hearing by birth.

"This was the first operation of its kind under "Tamil Nadu chief minister Kalaignar's Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatments and "Star Health and Allied Insurance Co Ltd", Tamil Nadu., Prof Mohan Kameswaran, who led the team, told reporters here today.

"Kavyadharshini, our patient, is a two–year–old girl who looks normal in every aspect except that she does not have hearing by birth, diagnosed at the age of one–and–half years and she was referred to our institution for further management", he added.

He said chief minister M Karunanidhi and deputy chief minister MK Stalin, who were convinced of the importance of Cochlear Implants and its potential to give hearing and improving the quality of life for young children, have encouraged this effort in rapid implementation of this scheme.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com

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'Veer' movie now available with audio description for blind people

Veer
April 23: Salman Khan starrer 'Veer' has now become the first movie in India to have an audio–description (AD) track in Hindi on its DVD. With this, the makers of the film ensure that no fan of Salman remains untouched by the charms of this romantic action movie.

UK–based Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) worked with Eros International to achieve this milestone after its research among blind or partially sighted people of Asian origin in the UK and India found that over 70 per cent of respondents were more likely to watch Bollywood films if AD in Hindi was provided.

AD is as important to blind and partially sighted people as subtitles are to those with hearing impairments. It is almost like an observer narrating a story to the viewer, an additional commentary that fits between passages of dialogue to describe action sequences, body language, costume and scenery – allowing the viewer to understand exactly what is happening on screen.

'Veer' from Eros international is directed by Anil Sharma and produced by Vijay Galani movies. The film stars Salman Khan, Zarine Khan, Sohail Khan and Liza Lazarus. The AD track has been produced at Red Bee Media Limited which has offices in UK, Australia, France, Spain and Germany.

Similarly Eros International is also exploring the possibility of making DVDs for ever green classics such as 'Sholay', 'Waqt' and 'Devdas' available to blind and partially sighted audiences across the world. Meanwhile 'Veer' DVD hits stores on 24th April 2010.

Source: http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels

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More disabled–friendly footpaths in Chennai

The pavement with yellow tiles and grooves on Swami Sivananda Salai, near the new Secretariat complex in Chennai.
April 23: When the footpath near the Ripon Building was refurbished, yellow tiles with grooves to aid visually impaired people were affixed. As part of the Chennai Corporation initiative to make pavements disabled friendly, similar tiles are being fixed on footpaths outside the new Secretariat complex.

The pavement on Swami Sivananda Salai is now ready with the grooved tiles. The bright coloured tiles will also be used in many more pavements in the city, Corporation officials said.

The Corporation has affixed the ceramic grids on pavements of Wallajah Road and on the footpaths at the Tower Park in Anna Nagar and Natesan Park in T.Nagar. "We would soon refurbish footpaths on the busy roads in T.Nagar," an official added.

According to Corporation officials, the work of the footpaths will start immediately on completion of the Rs.1,400–crore storm–water drainage project across the city.

K.Rengapathy, a regular user of the footpath near Ripon Building, says the facility should be extended to all pavements for visually impaired people.

"This short stretch has been of great help for many people like me. But we continue to face problems while crossing roads and walking on other roads," he says.

Nethrodaya founder Gopi says the basic issues relating to the problems for people with visual disability need to be addressed first. "Encroachments on pavements, junction boxes and hawkers obstruct the path and making it very difficult for all persons with disabilities to commute. It is necessary that they widen the pavements and make them disabled–friendly," he says.

Ramps and hand–grills must be provided and audio signals should be installed in all areas, he added.

Source: http://beta.thehindu.com

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19 fresh cases of polio reported

April 23: As many as 19 fresh polio cases have been reported in the country in the last three–and–half months, the Lok Sabha was informed Friday.

Of the 19 reported cases, Uttar Pradesh recorded nine, Bihar six, and Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir recorded one case each.

In a written reply, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said an awareness campaign on the paralytical disease has been launched in the country.

In 2009, a total of 741 polio cases were reported in India. Of these, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 602 cases.

'Bivalent oral polio vaccine (BOPV) has been introduced from January 2010 for the high risk areas,' Azad said.

The vaccine currently being used in the country is a monovalent one. It protects against a single strain (P1) causing the crippling disease. This strain causes large outbreaks and paralyses one out of every 200 children infected.

The other vaccine – MOPV3 – on the other hand, protects against the P3 strain which causes paralysis in one out of every 1,000 infections.

So the government introduced BOPV whose single drop protects against the P1 and P3 strains.

Source: http://sify.com/news

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Mamata blamed for disabled persons missing appointment with PM

Kolkata, 22 April: A delegation of disabled persons from West Bengal missed an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi because the special train sought from Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee reached 10 hours late.

"Because of this the delegation of members of the Paschim Banga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammilani (PBRPS) missed their appointment with the Prime Minister," Sports and Sundarbans Development Affairs Minister Kanti Ganguly alleged today.

Noting that he had written to Banerjee on March 5, Ganguly said the train not only reached late, but also there was insufficient water and facilities on board which led disabled people persons to suffer a lot.

He said he would write to the Railway Minister and the Prime Minister apprising them of the plight of disabled passengers during the journey.

"Its very unfortunate that we had to face this despite our request to the Railway Minister," he said.

The delegation had gone to New Delhi yesterday to press for rights of disabled people together with others from other parts of the country.

Source: http://www.zeenews.com

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Amendment of Copyright Act may affect print–disabled people

CHENNAI, 22 April: When G Udayaraj, a final year student, wants to read a book, he goes to the computer lab, dons a headset and listens to one of the 30,000 books that Presidency College's English department has converted into digital format.

Udayaraj has very low vision, which means everything from class notes to novels are easier to 'read' on the computer.

But a proposed amendment to copyright act might just change the way print– disabled people like Udayaraj 'read'. The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010, introduced in RS on Monday, says there will be copyright exemption only for converting books into special formats such as Braille and sign language [Section 52 (1) (zb)

"A number of print disabled people don't use Braille," says Rahul Cherian, a copyright lawyer with Inclusive Planet, an organisation working with disabled people. "They scan and convert printed material into electronic formats and use screen reading software like NVDA or JAWS to listen to it," he says.

"This amendment will mean they can no longer convert books into accessible formats on their own." The term print–disabled covers the blind, people with low vision, autism, cerebral palsy and learning disabilities, who cannot read with ease. Currently, the copyright act does not have explicit provisions about converting material into acessible formats.

This February, HRD ministry put out a list of proposed amendments, including the ones that have sent the print–disabled into a tizzy. The amendments say only organisations registered under the I–T act and working for disabled people can apply to Copyright Board for licenses to convert material into digital formats [Section 31B (1). "Most converting is done by parents of disabled children, students and volunteers, not by organisations," says V Sivaraman, assistant professor, English department, Presidency College, Chennai.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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People with disabilities demand separate ministry

New Delhi, April 20: Braving the scorching heat Tuesday, thousands of disabled people protested the government's failure to provide them with social security and free healthcare and demanded a separate ministry to look after their needs.

Led by Marxist leader Brinda Karat, the gathering also presented a charter of demands to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The rally was staged near the parliament building here and was organised by the National Platform for the Rights of disabled people, an umbrella of various organisations working for disabled people across the country.

Some of the protesters were in wheelchairs and others used sign language to communicate. The atmosphere was charged as they raised slogans demanding equality.

'We are here to demand our rights from the government, it is becoming harder and harder to survive. I feel discriminated everywhere,' said Sarik Mansa, a disabled person from West Bengal participating in the protest.

Their demands include a comprehensive social security system for all people with disabilities and their families, free healthcare for all disabled in all hospitals, an amendment to the Right to Education Act to include disability, immediate identification of jobs for disabled people, concessions in local trains and setting up of a separate ministry for disability affairs.

Earlier in the day, a delegation from the gathering met the prime minister to discuss these issues.

Addressing the protesters, Karat said: 'In the growth of the country is the growth of disabled people and in the growth of disabled is the growth of India.'

Karat added that the prime minister had assured her during the meeting that his government would do everything to fulfil the demands in the charter.

Source: http://calcuttatube.com

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Laws to be amended to make them disabled–friendly: PM

United News of India New Delhi, Apr 20: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured that laws would be amended to make them disabled–friendly.

The Prime Minister gave this assurance to a delegation of physically disabled people, led by CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat, who met him and submitted a memorandum of their demands.

Ms Karat said, disabled people marched from Jantar Mantar to Parliament and submitted their memorandum of demands, which included a separate ministry for disabled, comprehensive social security for them, antodaya cards for them and free health care facilities.

They also demanded a census of physically challenged people and special recruitment drive annually to fill all the vacancies meant for such individuals.

The Prime Minister heard their demands sympathetically and said that these are genuine concerns. He said if the laws were needed to be amended to make them disabled–friendly, then the government would do it exactly that. He spent some time with the 10–member delegation, Ms Karat informed.

The delegation also met Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik, who said the government was working on a new Act for disabled which would replace the existing Act.

The delegation, who were taken around in Parliament, pointed out that the Parliament House has only one disabled–friendly gate, which is very far away from the main building.

They demanded that Parliament be made more disabled–friendly.

Source: http://www.centralchronicle.com

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'Sambhav' National Resource Centre on Disability in Delhi

New Delhi, Apr 21: Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik will inaugurate 'Sambhav', the National Resource Centre on Disability, in the national capital on Thursday.

Being set up by the National Trust (a statutory body of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) in partnership with its State Nodal Agency – Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (AADI) and Sarthak.

This unique centre will provide the facilities for demonstrations and practical use of the displayed items by persons with disabilities.

It will help them in getting acquainted with the devices and taking decisions for buying the particular device. The centre will offer information about the price, availability and usage of devices.

National Trust's objective of setting up the National Resource Centre is to provide information and knowledge, about assistive technology, for different life roles, at one place.

Some of the different areas of life for which the assistive technology products are displayed in Sambhav centre.

Source: ANI

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Giving direction to the future of deafblind people

19 April: There are nearly 2.5 million deafblind people in the world, according to data from World Bank, with 4.25 lakh children from India alone, a rough estimate. Inspired by the work of four mothers in the U.K. for persons with multiple disabilities, Akhil Paul started Sense International (India) with 23 deafblind people in Ahmedabad. Today, it works with 38 partner organisations in 19 states and has reached out to 32,000 people.

Brahada Shanker, Regional Coordinator (South), Sense International (India), monitors the four southern states by helping produce resource material, conducing training and promoting networking activities. She spoke to Liffy Thomas on the organisation's journey so far.

"Identifying people who are deafblind and those with multi–sensory impairment is a big challenge in India. They are a minority within a minority and parents practically do not know how to identify, while most NGOs work with one disability," says Brahada Shanker, Regional Coordinator (South), who was in the city to participate in a workshop organised by the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities.

That's when Sense International (India) entered in 1997. From disseminating information, sensitising, conducting training and providing support to advocacy, it is an ongoing process. The 15–member core team is building a network of partners, which carries out the activities.

It offers home–based programmes, vocational training, community based rehabilitation and teacher training sessions. They adopt communication methods such as tactile signs, writing on the palm, tadoma (holding the jaws) and using pictures.

"The functional level of every person is different, so it is an evolving process," says Ms. Shanker, who has been with the social sector for 13 years and specialises with children with vision and additional disabilities.

Starting four Regional Learning Centers in the country was one major step that Sense International (India) took to reach out to small network organisations. In south India, for instance, the Holy Cross Service Society, Tiruchi, has identified 13 partners. "We even network with neo–natal and paediatric clinics such that they refer to our Regional Learning Centers if new cases have been identified," she says, adding that 2,000 teachers have been trained by them.

"Getting deafblind a certificate is the most difficult; unless otherwise there is a unique category it creates a lot of problems for which we are fighting," she says. Until then, reducing social exclusion and improving the quality of deafblind people is their motto. The deafblind helpline is 1800 233 7913.

Source: http://www.hindu.com

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Misuse of scholarship for disabled people: study

COIMBATORE, 18 April: The majority of disabled persons who receive scholarships do not get to enjoy the same, a study has found.

"Fifty–three per cent of the 600 girls and women interviewed have complained that scholarship in money and kind was taken away by family members and care takers," says the Avinashilingam University of Women, Coimbatore, study on 'Prevalence of Violence Among Disabled Girls/Women.'

Fifty per cent visually impaired, 76.7 per cent hearing impaired, 38.7 physically disabled persons and 66 per cent mentally disabled persons have complained of the scholarship money being used by others.

The UGC–sponsored study interviewed 150 persons each belonging to the aforementioned four disabilities from Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. And each of the cities accounted for equal number of subjects in all the special categories. The period of study: 2007–09.

It has also found that girls with disabilities from residential schools suffered more compared to their counterparts at integrated and special schools. Likewise, differently abled girls in Coimbatore and Madurai underwent more physical violence compared to those in Chennai.

The same is true of psychological violence and financial exploitation as well.

On the question of sexual violence, the study, carried out by the Department of Special Education, has reveals that only five per cent were abused and the abusers were mostly strangers.

The study's Principal Investigator Premavathy Vijayan, Co–Principal Investigator G. Victoria Naomi and Project Fellow S. Suganya say the purpose was to "Identify the dynamics of abuse, which includes comprehensive assessment of emotional, physical and sexual in the lives of women with disabilities; develop training packages for defence; and, identify abusers/perpetrators and their relationship to the victim."

There is a list of recommendations as well. It suggests the need for legal protection against abuse, providing information to the victim about intervention centres and services available in the community and level of accessibility, providing enough shelter homes for badly treated women and sensitisation to police personnel to register complaints from persons with disabilities.

Source: http://www.hindu.com

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Oral vaccine not enough to stop polio, finds study

Lucknow, 16 April: In a significant study which may force India and a few other countries to change polio eradication strategy, experts from Britain, India and the WHO have found that even vaccinated children in India play a role in transmitting wild polio virus.

So far, health agencies, including Global polio eradication initiative, had been advocating the use of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) instead of the inactivated vaccine. The OPV was believed to induce gut immunity meaning a vaccinated child does not excrete the virus, through which the disease spreads.

But the study, conducted by experts from the Imperial College London, National Polio Surveillance Project, and Global Polio Eradication Initiative, project of WHO ? points at the potential of OPV–vaccinated children in transmission of wild virus as well.

The study was conducted on around 14,000 stool samples collected between 2003 and 2008 from healthy children in contact with suspected cases of acute flaccid paralysis, mostly in UP and Bihar. Wild poliovirus was isolated from around 12 per cent of healthy children in direct contact with confirmed polio cases.

The study concluded: "Although OPV is protective against infection with poliovirus, the majority of healthy contacts who excreted wild–type poliovirus were well vaccinated? It is clear that OPV is protective against asymptomatic infection with wild poliovirus in India, but that this protection is incomplete."

The study, called "Asymptomatic Wild–Type Poliovirus Infection in India among Children with Previous Oral Poliovirus Vaccination" has been recently published in the electronic version of Journal of Infectious Diseases, whose printed version is expected on May 15.

Four countries including India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are reporting persistent poliovirus transmission despite various efforts and experts have admitted that Northern India is a unique case in eradication efforts.

Dr VM Vashishtha, the convenor of the Polio Eradication Committee of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, said: "It is clear now that immunity provided with OPV is imperfect even in case of herd immunity concept, for which OPV was advocated. All we suggest is, if by the end of this year, persistent transmission continues, we should be ready with a Plan B because we cannot allow things to go on."

In an e–mail, Dr Hamid Jafari, an investigator of the study and Project Manager of National Polio Surveillance Programme of India did not agree that there is an urgent need to change the focus of India's vaccination programme. "Well vaccinated children (6 or more OPV doses) in close contact with confirmed polio cases, were much less likely to get infected with wild poliovirus compared to the under–vaccinated (0–2 doses)," he wrote , indicating that repeated vaccination with OPV still needs to be undertaken.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com

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Disabled children to get special treatment under RTE

New Delhi, Apr 16: Children having disability including those with cerebral palsy, mental disability and autism will be treated as "disadvantaged groups" who will get precedence over others under the Right to Education Act.

The government today introduced a bill in the Rajya Sabha to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, which provides for free and compulsory education to all children of the age group of 6 to 14 years.

The children belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, socially, educationally and economically backward classes get preference over others under the historic Act enacted last year.

However, children with with disabilities were left out of the special category. Introducing the amendment bill in the Upper House, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the government wants to ensure "specific needs (of these children) are given precedence in the elementary education system in the country.

Source: http://www.ptinews.com

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Activists oppose 'discriminatory' amendment to Copyright Act

Mumbai: 16 April: Opposing the upcoming amendment to the Copyright Act, 1957 that proposes to exempt only the 'specially designed' formats like Braille to help disabled people to read, a group of disability rights activists on Thursday said that the move is "discriminatory" to people not knowing Braille and will be "counterproductive".

The National Access Alliance (NAA), an umbrella body campaigning for an appropriate amendment to the copyright Act, said it believes that the proposed clause, 52 Z (a) will hamper rather than help the print– impaired (people with any form of visual, cerebral or orthopaedic disability that deters normal reading) in accessing books.

It insisted that the Human Resource Development Ministry sets up a sub– committee that can propose appropriate suggestions before the clause is tabled in the Parliament.

Dr Sam Taraporewala, director of the Xaviers Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged and a member of the NAA, gives reasons for the opposition. "For one, the amendment claims that in order to convert books to disabled–friendly formats, the entity seeking to do so must apply for a license. That itself will take two to three months to be processed and students seeking to read will suffer unreasonable time losses," he said. "We would be caught up in paperwork. Moreover, the proposed clause wants to set an expiry date on the license and limit the number of people who can use the licensed books," he added

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com

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Disability job provision won't apply to private firms: court

NEW DELHI, April 15, 2010: The provision on non–discrimination under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 will not apply to private employers, whether individuals, partnerships, proprietary concerns or companies (other than government companies) or unaided schools, the Supreme Court has held.

According to Section 47 'Non–discrimination in government employment', no establishment shall dispense with, or reduce in rank, an employee who acquires a disability during his service: Provided that the employee, not suitable for the post he was holding, could be shifted to some other post with the same pay scale and service benefitsc"

A Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran, R.M. Lodha and C.K. Prasad, while dealing with the issue whether the provisions of the Act would apply to private institutions, held in a recent judgment that private companies were excluded from the term 'establishment' under Section 47. With this ruling, the Bench disposed of an appeal, arising from two Bombay High Court judgments, filed by Dalco Engineering Co and others questioning the directions on applicability of the Act to private firms.

Justice Raveendran, writing the judgement, said: "It is clear that the legislative intent was to apply Section 47 only to such establishments as were specifically defined as 'establishment' under Section 2(k) of the Act and not to other establishments. Private employers are clearly excluded from the 'establishments' to which Section 47 will apply."

The Bench said: "If the intention of the legislature was to prevent discrimination of persons with disabilities in any kind of employment, the marginal note [in the legislation] would have simply described the provision as 'non–discrimination in employment' and Section 47 (1) would have simply used the word 'any employer' instead of using 'establishment' and then taking care to define 'establishment'. The non–use of the words 'any employer', and 'any employment' and the specific use of 'government employment' and 'establishment' (as defined) demonstrate the clear legislative intent to apply the provisions of Section 47 only to employment under the state and not to employment under others."

On the contention that social economic legislation should be construed liberally, it said: "We agree that the socio–economic legislation should be interpreted liberally. It is also true that courts should adopt different yardsticks and measures for interpreting socio–economic statutes, as compared to penal statutes and taxing statutes. But a caveat. The courts cannot obviously expand the application of a provision in socio–economic legislation by judicial interpretation, to levels unintended by the legislature, or in a manner which militates against the provisions of the statute itself or against any constitutional limitations."

The Bench said: "There is a clear indication in the statute that the benefit is intended to be restricted to a particular class of employees. Express limitations placed by the socio–economic statute cannot be ignored, so as to include in its application those who are clearly excluded by such statute itself."

Also, the provisions of the Act would apply only to educational institutions belonging to the government or receiving aid from the government and not to unaided private institutions.

Source: http://thehindu.com

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'Right to education will remain a dream'

Mumbai, April 15: The Union government has made the right to education a fundamental right; but print–disabled people will find it difficult to access textbooks and other study material if the government amends the Copyright Act, 1957.

The amended act will make it mandatory to have licences to reproduce copyrighted work in any format ? even it is meant for the use of persons suffering from visual, aural, or other disability.

The amended proposal may be introduced in Parliament in the current budget session, Dr Sam Taraporevala, director of the Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), said at a press conference on Thursday. He said the government should reconsider changing the act.

"There are a few proposed amendments," Kanchan Pamnani, visually impaired advocate and solicitor, said. "But this will make our life more difficult." Citing her experience while she was studying law, Pamnani said a plethora of reference books had to be unbound and scanned for her to study. "It was a back–breaking job because such books ran into thousands of pages."

If the act is changed, an organisation working for the disabled will have to apply for a licence from the copyright board before reproducing any copyrighted text.

The process of accessing available material will become more tedious, she said. "If somebody in Kolkata has already scanned the reference material why should I have to do it again here?"

Print disability, apart from@blind people, applies to those with dyslexia and cerebral palsy. "When I was doing my MBA, I spent most of my time searching for reference material that could be accessed in a format I could read," Ketan Kothari of Sightsavers International said. "Braille is cumbersome and expensive. Now, there are formats that can convert text to audio."

Of the 70 million disabled people in the country, 20 million were children, Eliabeth Kurian, regional director of Sightsavers International, said. "Their right to education will not be a reality if the act is changed."

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com

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Private unaided educational institutions not bound to 3% reservation for disabled people: SC

New Delhi 3 April: In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has ruled that private unaided educational institutions are not bound to provide three per cent reservation to physically disabled candidates.

The apex court also ruled in the same judgment that even private companies are not obliged to retain physically disabled employees like their government counterparts.

A bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran, R M Lodha and C K Prasad, in its judgment ruled, It is well recognised that an aided private school would be included within the definition of 'state' in regard to its acts and functions as instrumentality of the state.

Therefore care is taken to apply the provisions of the Act to only educational institutions belonging to the government or receiving aid from the government and not to unaided private educational institutions.''

The apex court was dealing with the provisions of person with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

Justice Raveendran, writing 22 page judgment for the bench, also ruled that provisions of the Section 47 of the Act would not apply to the employees of a private company.

The section debars a government company from terminating the services of its disabled employee and makes it mandatory for a government company, which is an instrumentality of the state under Article 12 of the Constitution of India, to find a suitable job for physically disabled person instead of dispensing with the services of its employee who had acquired a disability.

The apex court while allowing the petition of Dalco Engineering Private Limited, dismissed the writ petition of Satish Prabhakar Padhye and others filed in the High Court.

Padhye was employed as a telephone operator by the appellant company for more than two decades and his services were terminated with effect from December 31, 2000 on the grounds that he had become deaf (85 per cent reduction in ability to hear).

The Bombay High Court had, however, allowed the petition of the employee vides order dated December 23, 2005 and directed the company to reinstate the respondent.

The apex court, however, noted, "We agree that socio-economic Legislation should be interpreted liberally. It is also true that courts should adopt different yardsticks and measures for interpreting socio-economic statutes as compared to the penal statutes and taxing statutes.

But a caveat. The courts can not obviously expand the application of a provision in a socio-economic legislation by judicial interpretation, to levels unintendedly the legislature or in a manner which militates against the provisions of the statutes itself or against any Constitutional limitation.

In this case there is a clear indication in the statutes that the benefit is intended to be restricted to a particular class of employee, that is, employees of enumerated establishments (which fall within the scope of state under Article 12).

Express limitations placed by the the socio-economic statutes cannot be ignored, so as to include in its application those who are clearly excluded by such statutes itself.

The apex court, however, made it clear that this judgment would not come in the way of employee of any private company, who had been terminated on the grounds of disability, seeking or enforcing any right available under any other statute, in accordance with law. http://www.mynews.in

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SC says 3 pc disabled quota not applicable to pvt unaided schools

Source: http://www.mynews.in

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SC says Disability Act not binding on private firms

New Delhi, 1 April: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday held that a law enacted in 1995, to prevent exploitation of disabled people by their employers, could not be enforced on the private sector.

A three–judge bench, comprising justices R.V. Raveendran, R.M. Lodha and C.K. Prasad, said the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, did not cast any obligation on private companies and schools.

The bench rejected a contention that the Act covered all companies incorporated under the Companies Act.

A private company had approached the apex court, against a high court order holding that the disabilities commissioner had jurisdiction over any company incorporated under the Companies Act. The high court had said it could direct the company to reinstate an employee who was dismissed on account of disability.

The second appeal was filed by a trust – on behalf of the employee – which had approached the apex court after the high court refused to pass any such direction to the company and admitted that the first judgment was incorrect.

Opposing the company's appeal, the dismissed employee pointed out that section 2(k) (i) of the disability Act brought "a corporation established by or under a central, provincial, or state Act" within its ambit.

But the apex court said a similar phrase in the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act meant government companies.

Read related article:

Private firms not bound to re-deploy disabled employees: apex court

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in

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Delhi University buildings will be more Disabled Friendly

New Delhi: Equal Opportunity Cell is planning to make 150 Delhi University buildings disabled–friendly. So far, 25 per cent of these buildings have adopted disabled friendly measures like tactile paths, ramps, lifts and signage

Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC) established by the University of Delhi in 2006, is going all out to ensure that physically disabled students of Delhi University face no difficulty while pursuing their studies.

Speaking to DT, Prof Ramakant Agnihotri, founder and coordinator of the EOC, said, "The prime objective of the EOC is to bring these students at par with other students by providing them with barrier free access to all buildings of colleges and departments and offices. With this objective in mind, an access audit of about 150 buildings of Delhi University was carried out by a professional agency to ensure that the college buildings are disabled–friendly."

These buildings should have straight and tactile paths, ramps, accessible toilets, lifts, signage and sign boards so that disabled students could go to any department or office of the Delhi University.

Prof Ramakant said, "About 25 per cent of colleges have implemented these norms so far." These are Lady Shri Ram College for Women, SRCC, Janaki Devi Mahavidyalaya, Gargi College, Khalsa College and Kamla Nehru College.

Komal Kamra, one of the founder members of the EOC and, associate lecturer in Khalsa College, informed, "It took us a year to get the draft policy passed, which made it mandatory for all the colleges of the Delhi University to make its building, departments and offices disabled–friendly. The work on its implementation was started in a phased manner."

Kamra informed that after the access audit, the funds were released to the colleges by the Delhi University for its necessary implementation. The same access audit team visited all the colleges to assess the implementation status. She said, "Most of the colleges are now having disabled–friendly toilets and ramps but more needs to be done on this front. In the second phase, it would be explored as to how to interconnect the college buildings and to bring physically disabled students to the college." She informed that plan is afoot to buy small vehicles for North and South campus colleges so that small distances could be covered by the disabled students. EOC has one big bus in North Campus which brings students from Sewa Kutir and nearby Metro station.

To make walking safer for students with disability, a dedicated pathway is being constructed by the EOC on both sides of the North Campus roads. The funds are being provided by the Delhi University.

Nisha Singh, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) said, "EOC is now in touch with schools and has obtained a list of physically challenged students studying in class XI and XII. EOC would contact their parents and know about their difficulties in sending them for higher education." And if need be, "EOC would extend financial and other help to these students to facilitate their admission in the higher education," she added. Nisha further said that a number of short–term courses for improving skills are also being offered to these students.

Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor (VC) of Delhi University, informed us that an additional Rs 2 crore have been released to each college and, "these funds could be utilised for making the buildings disabledfriendly, for the upkeep of drinking water and toilet facilities etc," he said. Realising the difficulties being faced by these students while commuting to their colleges, Pental said, "Plan is afoot to construct two more hostels in the campus area. Physically disabled students should be given first priority in the hostels. If approval comes from the government these hostels may be ready in two years time."

Interestingly, despite his active support for EOC efforts, the office of the VC remains inaccessible to physically disabled students!

Source: http://news.icbse.com

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Bihar seeks help of American experts to study blindness

Bihar, 31 March: The Bihar government has sought help from American eye experts to examine the reason behind as many as 18 children being born blind in the past three months in Bhojpur district.

Till date local and other doctors have failed to understand the reason. "We can't say anything about the reason why 18 children were born blind," Bihar Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav told IANS here Wednesday.

Mr. Yadav said the state health department has approached American eye experts to understand the reason behind it. "We hope to get a positive response from American experts," he said.

He also said that the state government was in touch with some reputed eye hospitals across India to examine the cause behind it.

All the 18 children were born blind in villages under Bihiya, Sahpur and Barehara blocks.

Bhojpur district health officials said that high levels of arsenic were found in the district.

Early this year S.K. Kedia, a local eye specialist, who was first consulted by parents of most of the blind children, said there was a ray of hope for them if the government allowed American eye experts to study and examine the rare case.

Source: http://beta.thehindu.com

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