The passage of the RPWD Act 2016 was meant to advance and
safeguard the rights of people with disabilities in India. However, many
states are yet to even notify the Act, which is the first step towards
implementation.
One key provision of the Act is the setting up of district-level committees
that are to look into the welfare of the disabled people in states. But in
many states, like Telanganathe local administration is yet to
wake up and form these committees.
The committees are to be headed by the District Collector
with the Superintendent of Police acting as
vice-chairperson. The purpose of the committee is act as a watchdog to ensure
that various schemes are reaching the disabled people of the region. The
committees must have representatives from education, health, R&B and
social welfare departments along with non-official members and stakeholders
from the disabled community.
It has been found that many district collectors have either failed to set up
the committees or have not arranged the mandatory bi-annual meeting.
“Most districts have not formed these committees and the implementation of
the provisions of RPWD Act is not being done as efficiently as expected. Even
if they do, they do not have the non-official members or stakeholders from
the disabled community in place. Till now only very few have formed these
committees but meetings are not held.” Says Srinivas N,
Chairperson, Network of Persons with Disability Organisation-NPDO.
The watchdog committee is expected to carry out certain
crucial tasks at the district level. Some of these are
• Monitoring the implementation of various schemes.
• Monitor the violations of provisions of the RPWD Act.
• Providing advice to District Collectors on the rehabilitation of people
with disabilities.
Local authorities also need to speed up the awareness programs to make people
aware about their rights.
“They must adopt various ways to ensure implementation – ranging from simple
lobbying and advocacy to following up with State Commissioners to even moving
courts,” says Rati Misra, Advisor, NCPEDP
TheCommissioner of the Disability Department has been
sending reminders to the 31 collectors across the state and demanded the
report on progress made in this regard however, a response is still awaited.
This shows the laxity at the part of the district level administrators when
it comes to implementing the RPWD Act.
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Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21004
