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"There is a very deep-rooted prejudice"

Siddharth Narrain

Anuradha Mohit, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Special Rapporteur on Disability, says the academic sector has been the most insensitive in affirmative action for the disabled.

Anuradha Mohit: "A person's success depends on the opportunities given." — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Trained in special education and administration, Anuradha Mohit has served as Deputy Chief Commissioner in the office of Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities, Government of India, and as the Executive Director of the National Association for the Blind. Ms. Mohit is a founder member of the well-known Disability Rights Group and has worked for the enactment and implementation of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. She has been nominated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as the global representative of National Human Rights Institutions in the U.N. Committee elaborating the Disability Convention. In an interview in New Delhi recently, she spoke on the issues related to the rights of persons with disability in the country. Excerpts:

How many disabled persons are there in India?

The 2001 Census has given us a figure of about 2 crore 19 lakh persons. But this is not a very convincing figure as according to the WHO at least 10 per cent of the world's population has a disability. If you look within the Asia-Pacific Region, Australia has declared that 25 per cent of its population has a disability. In New Zealand the figure is around 19 per cent. Here you have India with a miniscule 2.19 per cent. It depends so much on what sort of definition a country adopts. The numbers also depend a lot on the cultural variations in which disability related questions are asked to people. A common experience cited by disabled people and their family members in the census is that the enumerator never asked the last question in the questionnaire related to disability in the family. The reason they hesitate to ask this question is that culturally it is not seen as a good question to pose to someone.

The success of the census depends on the perception of disability. For instances, in villages, mild to moderate levels of disability just pass. A lot depends on how culturally disability is constructed, perceived, and admitted. Certain disabilities like mental disabilities people like to hide. Nonetheless the current census figure is not a small one, and cannot be ignored. But it is not large enough to be considered enough for planning and investment.

It has been more than 10 years since the Persons with Disabilities Act was passed. What is the status of the implementation of this law?

The Persons with Disabilities Act is essentially about economic and socials rights and will be essentially achieved over a period of time through progressive implementation. Unfortunately what has happened is that in the implementation of certain crucial provisions of the Act, the state has not taken any action. For instance, the Act talks of creating a barrier free environment for public use, and in all public services including workspaces. But unfortunately whatever little has happened has been very sporadic. Local governments, whose actions are crucial in the creation of barrier free environments, have not incorporated model building law provisions in local bye-laws. Ten States in the country have now taken efforts after the Commission has recommended this in the last three years by meeting the Principal Secretaries. Recently the Supreme Court admitted a PIL on this issue in the Supreme Court.

Another area we have done extremely poorly is the right to education. The child population among the disabled is as diverse as it is for other children. The choice of a school system is not determined by the state when it comes to other children. But when it comes to disabled children, the state and professionals are trying to determine what sort of education the children should receive, when it should be a prerogative of parents. The Act is comprehensive and framed in a rights paradigm when it comes to education, but what is happening on the ground is absolutely on a medical model.

The Act provides for three per cent reservation in government aided and run educational institutions. Is this being implemented?

There was a debate on whether the provision for three per cent reservation in the Persons with Disabilities Act extended to seats in government-run and aided educational institutions. The courts have clarified that it does. The academic sector has been the most insensitive in [the] requirement for affirmative action for the disabled. It was very difficult to convince the IITs that reserving three per cent of their seats for the disabled would not compromise on excellence. When the National Law School in Bangalore rejected a low-vision candidate, the student concerned took the matter to the Karnataka High Court, which gave a favourable verdict. Even in the Kendriya Vidyalaya schools it was difficult to get this implemented.

Currently reservation of seats for the disabled is being implemented in most central educational institutions. All the law schools, the IIMs, and medical and pharmacy colleges are implementing this provision. But there are universities and colleges in States as well as autonomous institutions that are still not implementing this provision.

One of the reasons for this situation is that under the Act the persons responsible for implementing this provision are State Commissioners who are junior level officers with additional charge. They are reluctant to issue orders to their bosses in the executive. If due autonomy is given to State Commissioners, this problem could be solved.

The Act also provides for three per cent reservation disabled persons in government-run and aided establishments. Is this being implemented?

Reservation in government-run and aided establishments for disabled people came into existence in 1977 through an executive order. The Persons with Disabilities Act has strengthened it further. What has happened is that the mindset of the employer has interfered in the implementation of the Act. There is a weakness in the Act itself as it allows, through an administrative arrangement, an establishment can be exempted from the obligation of three per cent reservation in jobs for the disabled. If an establishment [government or supported by government] is able to make out a case before a Committee of Secretaries showing them good reasons for not employing people with disabilities, then through an administrative arrangement, exemption can be accorded.

I have been Deputy Chief Commissioner in the Office of Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities and during that period invariably establishments who were violating the three per cent reservation would come up with bogus reasons for exempting them from the rule. That only showed that there is a very deep-rooted prejudice, and people view disabled people as hazardous workmen incapable of handling jobs.

Do you think reservation for the disabled should be extended into the private sector?

Absolutely. If we are able to today bring some people with disabilities into the organised workforce, a majority of them have come into the workforce because of reservation. The state has literally forced this on employers. The opportunities in public employment are shrinking. Disabled people will have far fewer opportunities in the public sector than before.

It is worth learning from experiences in other countries. Pakistan has an arrangement by which reservation for the disabled operates by an arrangement that promotes entry of disabled persons in the private sector. If a private employer is not employing the required percentage of disabled persons, he has to contribute to Corporate Fund. This fund is used for training facilities, unemployment allowances, etc. It is a very good example. This is called the Quota and Levy System. But the most difficult and challenging area is employment for rural disabled. We have utterly failed here. We have not been able to use even one per cent of the three per cent set aside for the disabled in the poverty reduction schemes aimed at creating employment in rural sector.

What is the preferred terminology to refer to disabled persons?

By and large people prefer to use the term "persons with disability" when it comes to law and policy. Half of our energy is spent on coining the right terminology, which I think is a futile exercise. If you ask disabled people like me, we are very happy being called disabled people. From a political perspective I prefer the term "disabled people" — the underlying assumption is that we have the ability, but this has been disabled due to external circumstances.

You were visually impaired at the age of ten. What has you experience been so far on an individual level?

If you are a woman and also disabled, you are bound to encounter more obstacles. You learn to deal with it as it becomes your daily experience and the environment you are so hostile. Even boarding a public bus is like climbing Mount Everest. Even in agenda meetings that I attend, I don't recall a single instance when an agenda paper has been prepared in Braille or large print.

A person's success depends on the opportunities given to him. Blindness is not the problem. The problem is the attitude of others.

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"There is a very deep-rooted prejudice"

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