Tags:
Journalism of Courage
What may be innocuous for some can be immensely intimidating for others. Take steps those simplest of concrete blocks which most children take two at a time. For a wheelchair-bound child,however,those very steps could separate her from a decent education. Barriers such as these had threatened to make the right to education legislation fall short of its noble aim: the promise that every child,regardless of circumstance,would get a decent primary education. But serious questions about the insensitivity of the original draft to disabled children came up just as it was set to being passed in Parliament. Amidst an agitation by activists and the prime ministers intervention,Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal promised Parliament that these concerns would be taken care of. Now that the dust has settled and the law passed,will Sibal deliver?
Reports that the HRD ministry is planning to amend the mint-fresh law to make it more disabled-friendly suggest that he will. Specifically,disabled children are to be included in the category of children of disadvantage. Legalese matters. Disadvantaged children get a 25 per cent quota in private schools; currently disabled children cannot benefit from this. The other change the HRD ministry is proposing is in the definition of disabled. There is some ambiguity on whether the current definition includes children with mental disabilities such as cerebral palsy. By clearly stating that the definition includes children covered under the National Trust Act and other laws for the disabled,this controversy would be put to rest.
