New draft law for disabled lacks focus

HYDERABAD: The appeals and demands of persons with disabilities (PWD) have not been mentioned in the new draft of the proposed law for the PWD and it must be redrafted, alleged Muralidharan, national convener of National Platform for Rights of Disabled (NPRD).Speaking here on Sunday at a day long state level conference on ‘Rights of the disabled and the PWD Act-2011’ conducted by the NPRD, he said the law would be coming after 15 years of continuous struggle for the rights of PWDs. But it would do nothing as it would just be a rewritten draft of the previous PWD Act passed in 1995. The draft law, which was made by the minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, would be tabled in the upcoming monsoon parliament session. The new law was drafted out of sympathy for the disabled but not based on the rights of PWDs, Muralidharan alleged. The NPRD has been appealing to the government to provide reservations for PWDs to contest in elections for MLA and MP seats but that has not been mentioned in the draft. But the reservations per cent in education and job opportunities was increased from 3 to 6 per cent . This was not a prime demand of the PWDs.NPRD state president V Venkateswarlu said that in the last six months, many cases of harassment have been filed by disabled people. Eight girls were raped, 95 girls were sexually abused, 6 disabled people were killed and around 246 were treated inhumanly. “We need strong laws for our freedom and for our security,” he said.As per the draft, PWDs who have more than 40 per cent of disability, will get Physically Challenged (PHC) category reservations but who have less than 40 per cent are also facing the problems, he said. “We want a law which will provide all the basic needs, facilities and security with accountability,” he said.District level members of the NPRD, AP Vikalangula Cooperative Commission members and about 150 PWDs were present.