Cautious experts welcome Bill move

NEW DELHI: Activists and medical professionals have lauded the government’s move to increase the ambit of the disabled list to offer benefits to acid attack survivors, those suffering from chronic neurological conditions, and haemophilia and sickle cell anaemia patients. This, they said, will help in integrating them into society.

“The inclusion of chronic neurological conditions will allow doctors to certify even people with conditions such as refractory epilepsy and spinal cord injuries as disabled on the basis of severity and other parameters,” said Dr

Manjari Tripathi

, professor of neurology at AIIMS.

Ria Sharma, founder of Make Love Not Scars, an NGO, was delighted to know that acid attack survivors would be included in the Persons with Disabilities Bill, which is to be tabled in

Parliament

soon. “People think acid attack survivors only have disfigurement of face, but most of them also become partially or fully blind. They have to struggle to get disability certificates because nobody is ready to help them.” Sharma, however, said the survivors were sceptical as “even the scheme to allow them free treatment was never implemented properly.They are uncertain about how this Bill will actually help them.”

If

the Bill

gets passed, it will be a major upgrade of the disabilities’ statute, given that the number of handicap categories have remained frozen at seven for two decades. The list will have 21 categories and make these people eligible for affirmative actions and benefits under the law. The amended Bill will entitle every child between 6 and 18 years with “benchmark disability” the “right to free education”.

It will also increase reservation in higher educational institutions from 3% to 4% for students with “benchmark disabilities”. The Bill proposes increase in reservation in government jobs from 3% to 4% and stresses on easy accessibility in public transport.

While welcoming the move, Dr

Nimesh Desai

, the head of Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), also warned against making the list too inclusive. “Every illness can lead to disability. But we have to be careful not to bring everyone under this category as many illnesses can be successfully treated,” Desai said.