Right of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016

Subject: Polity

Context:

Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities move to decriminalize minor offences under Right of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 has attracted protest from people.

Concept:

• The Act replaces the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. It fulfills the obligations to the United National Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which India is a signatory.  The Act came into force during December 2016.
• The types of disabilities have been increased from existing 7 to 21 and the Central Government will have the power to add more types of disabilities.
• Persons with “benchmark disabilities” are defined as those certified to have at least 40 per cent of the disabilities specified above.

Rights and entitlements under act

• Responsibility has been cast upon the appropriate governments to take effective measures to ensure that the persons with disabilities enjoy their rights equally with others.
• Additional benefits such as reservation in higher education (not less than 5%), government jobs (not less than 4 %), reservation in allocation of land, poverty alleviation schemes (5% allotment) etc. have been provided for persons with benchmark disabilities and those with high support needs.
• Every child with benchmark disability between the age group of 6 and 18 years shall have the right to free education.
• Government funded educational institutions as well as the government recognized institutions will have to provide inclusive education to the children with disabilities.
• For strengthening the Prime Minister’s Accessible India Campaign, stress has been given to ensure accessibility in public buildings (both Government and private) in a prescribed time-frame.

UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
• There were 82 signatories to the Convention. The Convention entered into force on 3 May 2008.
• It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century.
• The Convention follows decades of work by the United Nations to change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities.
• It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as “objects” of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as “subjects” with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.
• The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension.
• It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.