Disabled don't need care homes, they need education, employment: Dr Mithu Alur
Dr Mithu Alur, founder-chairman of ADAPT, has been tirelessly working with people with disabilities for 42 years now. On the eve of the United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities, observed on December 3 every year, she spoke to dna's Amrita Nayak Dutta about the daily problems of the challenged, and how they have long been ignored by the political class.
Do differently-abled people have a better stand in society as compared to a few years ago?There are approximately 70 to 80 million people with disabilities in the country. They do not have a constituency. They do not have a voice. In fact, no political party has given the issue much of a thought. They don't just need care. They need education and employment. But the country is far from reaching there.
What is the development in this regard, in terms of educating children with special needs?After repeated demands, the government has accepted that children with special needs will have to be educated in the form of the RTE Act. However, there are many hurdles in the implementation process. We do not encourage building of special schools for children with special needs. We believe in empowering the existing system, where differently-abled kids would be able to study with other children. A new term that is being used is universal design, which doesn't mean schools just should have ramps and special toilets with bars, they should also have curriculum, textbooks and examinations made accessible to different kinds of disability. Quite often, the canteen and playground are not accessible and disabled children don’t get the full experience of education.Secondly, pedagogy needs to address teacher education for RTE. There are six million teachers across India, but none of them have been trained to deal with special kids. During the teachers' training carried out by UGC, IGNOU, NCERT and others, they should be trained to also handle children with special needs in a class of regular kids. We have prepared special modules for that.
What about employment of adults with disabilities?There are problems here too. Most companies, as part of their CSR activities, again neglect the disabled. We are now planning to approach them, asking them to also contribute for the disabled. Disabled people are not part of their CSR Policy Framework.
Are you going to push for the Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, in the winter session of Parliament?Yes. The draft Bill required more than 100 amendments. We had suggested that the Bill be made on the lines of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and that has been done. It just now has to be put before Parliament, so that it becomes an Act.
dna carried out an audit to check accessibility at different points for people with disabilities in Mumbai, and the results were negative. Any comments?That's sad. It's because there is no accountability. For the final Bill, we have suggested to the union ministry that regular checks be carried out at such places to find out if they are disabled-friendly, as per the disability commissioner, and licences should be cancelled, punitive action taken, if not.