News

Volume 6 Issue 4 - August 01, 2009

Parivaar submits Memorandum to the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: Parivaar, the parents’ body for intellectually disabled people, has submitted a memorandum to the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Mukul Wasnik, calling for wider consultations with the disability sector on the proposed amendments to the Disability Act.

It has welcomed the decision to include autism and multiple disabilities in the Act but says that cerebral palsy should also be included in the same category as including them under locomotor disability is not justified.

The memorandum expressed disappointment at the poor implementation of the Act and U.N.C.R.P.D.

“It has been more than 13 years since the Act, but the implementation has been very poor. The Central Co-ordination Committee and the Central Executive Committee were supposed to oversee and monitor the implementation and meet every six months, but never actually did,” says J.P. Gadkari, President, Parivaar, in the memorandum.

The memorandum has called for the two committees at the Central and State level to be revamped, reconstituted and activated. It would bring about quick and smooth implementation of the provisions of the Act, it said.

The memorandum has also demanded better utilisation of funds, grant in aids and setting up of a National Commission on Disability among other things.