News

Volume 8 Issue 4 - February 15, 2011

Committee drafting new disability law meets, the ‘beneficiaries’ remain in the dark

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: In the last revised schedule released by the Committee drafting the proposed new disability law, it was planned to have a meeting on January 31, February 1 and 2 in New Delhi to finalise the Working Draft before it was released to the public. However, there has been no news in the public domain on this meeting. Although, it is confirmed that the Committee did meet, the minutes of the meeting have not been released even until now. The ‘beneficiaries’ – the disability sector in general and people with disabilities in particular, of the proposed Act continue to remain in the dark!

Meanwhile, the resignations of G. Syamala and Rajiv Rajan have been officially accepted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (M.S.J.E.). However, Bhargavi Davar, another Member who had resigned, is yet to receive any notification as to whether her resignation has been accepted or not. Speaking to D.N.I.S., Davar said that the Chairperson of the Committee, Dr. Sudha Kaul has informed her that M.S.J.E. has sent a notification to Dr. Kaul stating that her resignation has been accepted.

One disability rights activist who had been closely involved in the drafting process, on condition of anonymity, told D.N.I.S. that some new faces have been included in the past few meetings of the Committee to replace the ones who had quit. These new invitees, according to our source, apparently are decoy participants of some caregivers. D.N.I.S. could not confirm this as the Committee is neither releasing the minutes nor are they making public the list of people who attended the Committee meetings since the time four of its Members resigned.