Fwd: RTE Bill - Right of the disabled and the politics of the Bill.

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---------- Forwarded message ----------Anil Sadgopal <anilsadgopal

Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 3:06 AMRe: RTE Bill - Right of the disabled and the politics of the Bill.To " Dr.V.N.Sharma " <vnsh44, 

Dear colleagues in the disability rights movement,

 

Please accept my salutations for carrying forward the battle for the Fundamental Right of the disabled children to receive education of equitable quality (or even more than equitable quality) with dignity!

 

I am reproducing below my response to Ms. Meenakshi B. of DLU South, Chennai on the matter of our mutual concern.

The AIF-RTE memorandum to the President is also enclosed in both word and pdf files for your reference - see page 2, sixth bullet point.

Through my response below, I wish to open a dialogue with you all on the politics of the Bill.

We are fighting for Constitutional guarantee for a Fundamental Right to be provided in the Bill, not for oral assurances or rhetorical promises in the Parliament which have characterized the government’s disdain for India’s children for the past 60 years. I seek your agreement on this count.

Any PIL must wait until the Bill becomes an Act. And this will need a careful planning.

Awaiting feedback,

Sincerely,

Anil Sadgopal

 

MY RESPONSE TO MS. MEENAKSHI B. OF DLU SOUTH IS REPRODUCED BELOW FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

 

Dear Meenakshi ji,

 

Vannakkam!

 

Apologies for my delayed response. Thanks for the attachments of the UNCRPD and PWD Act. I needed them and they are invaluable for our struggle.

 

Here is the AIF-RTE memorandum (in both word and pdf files) to the President urging her to return the Bill for reconsideration. On page 2, the sixth bullet point is about disabled children's Right to study in normal schools and classrooms and changing the concept of disability as per international definition.

 

Of course, the Memorandum critiques the basic framework of the Bill and seeks radical changes in its framework. Without this paradigm change, the disabled children will also be denied their Right. This is our contention. A mere inclusion of a phrase (“including disabled childrenâ€) in the definition of the disadvantaged children, I would humbly submit, will not give any meaningful Right when the entire framework is based on inequality, discrimination and abdication by the State of its Constitutional obligations. On the contrary, such a cosmetic change is likely to be accepted as it allows the government to win legitimacy and applause for an otherwise discredited Bill.

 

The least what we should seek is a radical change in the Norms and Standards in the Schedule in favour of the disabled child and a provision in the Bill guaranteeing all necessary additional financial investment for integration of the disabled children in regular classrooms, except in rare circumstances. For instance, one assistant teacher trained in sign language is to be provided along with the regular teacher if there is even one hearing handicapped child in a class of 30 or 40 or the entire text material to be provided in Braille if there is even one visually handicapped in the class. The entire teacher education programme would have to be remodeled. The Chapter V of the PWD Act, referred to in the Proviso of Section 3 (2), violates the basic spirit of inclusive education as articulated in UNESCO’s Salamanca Declaration (1994). How can we allow this kind of a

Bill? 

 

Please consider this viewpoint and let me have your considered feedback. I respect and value your feedback as it will come from the focused perspective of the disabled child.

 

Regards,

 

Sincerely,

 

Anil Sadgopal

 

 

 

--- On Sat, 8/8/09, dri.delhi <dri.delhi wrote:

 

dri.delhi <dri.delhiRe: Request to include disability in the agenda of RTE advocacy.

community-mental-health- (AT) googl (DOT) com, anilsadgopalCc: chaitali.shetty, " Chidambaranathan " <tnhandicappedtrust, " Deepak Thanumalaya meenakshi nathan " <deepaknathan, " lakshmi sundar " <sundarlakshmi, " murali cheshire " <murali_ability, " sandeep rambhatla " <blitz_sandy, " srishti.mc consolidate " <srishti_mc, " Vijayakumar Advocate " <adv.vijayakumar, " V. Jayakumar " <2beor02be, vandana.gopikumar, community-mental-health- (AT) googl (DOT) com, " sudha " <suds105

Saturday, 8 August, 2009, 10:26 AM

 

dear rajiv,

the public hearing was held yesterday at jantar mantar and all these issues have been put up to mr anil sadgopal and other participants in the public hearing. we   should include all these in the pil. mr sadgopal stated that disability organisations need to come forward to join this campaign and also stated that mere assurances  from pm and hrd minister without being incorporated in the law will be meaningless. thankyou for sending this mail as this clearly states the support of your alliance.

warmly,

rajive

 

-

Dlu South

anilsadgopal

Cc: chaitali.shetty ; Chidambaranathan ; Deepak Thanumalaya meenakshi nathan ; lakshmi sundar ; murali cheshire ; sandeep rambhatla ; srishti.mc consolidate ; Vijayakumar Advocate ; V.

Jayakumar ; vandana.gopikumar ; community-mental-health- (AT) googl (DOT) com ; sudha

Thursday, August 06, 2009 4:10 PM

Request to include disability in the agenda of RTE advocacy.

Dear Mr. Anil Sadagopal,Greetings from Disability Rights Alliance, Tamil Nadu!We are a group of NGOs, Federations and individual activists formed to pressurize the State Government to include disability related issues at the policy and decision making level. This group also advocates whenever there has been any violation of Human Rights of Disabled People.

We understand that you are in the process of filing a PIL against the recently passed Right to Education Bill. You may be aware of the Nation wide protest that the disability sector did on the 3rd of August demanding to stall the proceedings of the RTE as the Bill discriminates disabled children.

The demands of the sector were " 1. Include disabled children in the definition of children (disadvantaged) 2. Schools should include and talk about the infrastructure required for disabled children to be a part of the mainstream

schools. 3. Special Schools must also be a part of the Bill. 4. The Bill referes to the PWD Act in its Chapter II. But it should have reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Perseons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) as the PWD Act itself is insufficient and need to be amended in lines with the UNCRPD. The Act also lists only few categories of disabilities.

A couple of representatives from the disability sector for half an hour and appraised him of our concern.He gave  aword saying that the bill will not be passed without including our demands.Despite all this, when the bill came out, it had very ;little or almost nothing for the disabled children.This is bill is a clear violation of atleast 2 UN Conventions (i.e) UNCRPD and UNCRC.

Therefore, we would like to know if you would be interested in adding these points in your PIL / protest as well.Looking forward to your support for the cause and response for

our email.Thanking You,With warm regardsRajiv RajanMemberDisability Rights Alliance, Tamil Nadu--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~You received this message because you are d to the Google Groups " community Mental Health " group.

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