Decade on, disability policy rejig in limbo

Ten years have passed since the original disability law was enacted, yet the government has yet to introduce a revised National Policy for Persons with Disabilities. The outdated policy, established two decades ago, fails to adequately translate the rights granted by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPDA) Act of 2016 and India's commitments to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Doctors with Disabilities: Agents of Change (DwDAoC), a disability rights organization, has expressed deep concern over this delay, emphasizing the need for a contemporary national policy to ensure a coordinated, measurable, and adequately resourced response from all levels of government. The government acknowledged the necessity for a new policy in a 2022 public notice, inviting feedback on a draft policy presented by a task force in October 2021.

This draft, submitted by the deadline of September 30, 2022, aimed to incorporate significant developments since the 2006 policy, such as India's ratification of the UN Convention and the enactment of the RPDA. However, four years after the consultation process, India is still operating under the 2006 policy. DwDAoC founder Dr. Satendra Singh, who leads an organization representing health professionals with disabilities, has highlighted the urgent need for a rights-based, functional, and accommodation-oriented approach in disability policy.

The organization has criticized the draft for lacking sufficient integration with health ministry's accessibility standards for healthcare and inadequate reflection of accessibility requirements in public procurement frameworks. They have called for updates on the revised policy's status, the reasons for its delay, and the proposed mechanism and timeline for future consultations.