Opinion Whose right to education?

First,definitional. Disabled children have been excluded from the definition of children belonging to “disadvantaged groups”. You can be disadvantaged for reasons social,cultural,economical,geographical,linguistic and gender-related; but the term “disability” — there in previous drafts,right until last year — has been deliberately left out. Similarly,where the term ‘school’ is defined,there is no mention of the unique infrastructure needed by various types of children with disabilities.

Under the chapter on Right to Free and Compulsory Education,there is a reference to children “suffering” from disability! But even there,the HRD Ministry has failed to capture the genuine challenges that disabled children face. The Bill restricts the definition of “disability” to only the Disability Act of 1995. The babus were either unaware of or have deliberately neglected the most important piece of legislation: the National Trust Act of 1999. The 1995 Act covers only physical disabilities: blindness,deafness,locomotor impairments,etc. Other disabilities,the more difficult ones,namely cerebral palsy,autism,multiple disabilities,etc. are covered under the National Trust Act.

If the Bill is not corrected at once and God forbid,passed in this form by the Lok Sabha,it will automatically exclude all these severely and multiply disabled children.

I am a physically disabled person. As a child,I started on crutches but soon had to start using the wheelchair. I have seen it all; I have experienced it up close. And in spite of all the difficulties and challenges that I faced as a physically disabled child (and most certainly,I was not “suffering”!),those difficulties are nothing as compared to the challenges faced by a boy with autism or a girl with cerebral palsy or a child with deaf-blindness or mental retardation or muscular dystrophy.

I could not have imagined such callousness. How the HRD Ministry could bungle so badly I cannot comprehend.

Over a decade ago the disability movement advocated moving away from the paradigm of charity and welfare to that of development and rights. “Inclusiveness” was argued for and defined: people with disabilities,especially children,should not be segregated,but should firmly be part of the mainstream. Until then,their so-called “education” was restricted to “special” schools,mostly badly run by NGOs. In those schools,few bothered to pause to think about what would happen to these kids after they finished their schooling in artificially-created environments. Wouldn’t she or he attend a regular (normal!) college or university some day? And if so,why not prepare them from day one?

Hence,first the Disability Act of 1995 and then the National Trust Act of 1999. And since then we have come a long way. There is now a National Disability Policy. The current Five-Year Plan has a whole chapter on disability issues,with firm commitments about policy and also about resources. Finally,just two years ago,India ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

In the previous government,when Arjun Singh was HRD Minister,I and Dr. Mithu Alur were asked to serve on the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). We and other experts from the disability movement actively participated in several subcommittees and working groups.

More than a decade’s hard work led to a day in 2008 where disability and related issues were firmly entrenched in the Right to Education Bill. If you take a look at that draft Bill,disability is clearly listed as a category under ‘disadvantaged groups’. And several other measures.

Now,out of the blue,we find all that quietly deleted! Why? The colour of the government is still the same,with Manmohan Singh as PM and Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson of the UPA. Two individuals who,beyond a shadow of a doubt,are extremely pro-disability. They must intervene,firmly and urgently. The Bill must be withdrawn.

Only three changes are needed,all three totally non-controversial. First,include disability under the definition of “disadvantaged groups”; second,include special schools and other necessary infrastructures under the definition of the term “school”; and third,under in the rights section,mention the 1999 National Trust Act along with the 1995 Disability Act of 1995.

The unchanged bill shouldn’t pass. To commit a mistake unknowingly is one thing. But to do it knowingly,based on the arrogance of power and the strength of numbers,is quite another. I hope better sense prevails.

The writer,a wheelchair user,is the Convenor of the Disabled Rights Group. express@expressindia.com