Don't want a pedestal, give us equal opportunities: Disability activists

In 2010, a year after joining the J&K police, Farooq Ahmed Sheikh from Baramulla, was paralysed waist down in a road accident. He now works as a selection grade constable, and is a wheelchair basketball player. Pic/Sajid Khan

On September 14, 2010, Farooq Ahmed Sheikh, a policeman from Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir, was returning home from duty in a local taxi when the driver lost control of the car and it hurtled down into a gorge. Sheikh suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralysed waist down. He was hospitalised and discharged only four months later. "I was bedridden for long," he remembers, "confined to a room for nearly five years, doing nothing but staring at the ceiling." The Kitchama resident attempted to take his life four times.

Eleven years later, Sheikh, 34, is back in the police force as a selection grade constable. He's also one of the top wheelchair basketball players in the country. "My department assisted me with counselling and rehab. It's their unflinching support that has helped get me back on my feet." Before the injury, Sheikh was assigned general duty (law and order). Post rehabilitation, he has a desk job. With the help of an Amritsar-based automotive consultant, Sheikh modified a Maruti Suzuki Alto, which he drives independently to work.

Arman Ali, executive director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, calls the Centre's decision arbitrary and unjust

While Sheikh, who uses a wheelchair, considers himself fortunate to be serving the state, those with disabilities harbouring similar ambitions, might have it harder. In a gazette notification issued last month, the Centre has decided to remove the four per cent reservation quota for the differently-abled from all posts under the Indian Police Service (IPS); all categories of posts under the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli Police Service; and all categories of posts under the Indian Railway Protection Force Service (RPF). The Ministry also issued another notification making a distinction between combat and non-combat roles in the security forces. The Ministry exempted all combat posts in the Border Security Force (BSF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Central Industrial Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Sashastra Seema Bal and the Assam Rifles from the non-discrimination and reservation provisions of the RPwD (Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Act.

Farooq Ahmed Sheikh, a policeman from Baramulla, got paralysed waist down in 2010, when the cab he was travelling in, fell into a gorge. He now works in the clerical section of the J&K police as a selection grade constable. Pic/Sajid Khan

The decision has left many surprised. Arman Ali, executive director at National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, calls it "arbitrary and unjust". Exempting Section 34 of the RPwD Act, 2016, does injustice to persons with disabilities, he argues. "The average mindset goes, ‘Arre, how will this person serve in the police force if he can't even walk?' Jobs in the police department aren't limited to field jobs, there are sub-departments like forensics, cyber, IT and clerical duties to be done, which can accommodate persons with disabilities." When the army can allow soldiers who have acquired a disability while performing their duty, to hold service, why not the police? Ali states the instance of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), whose integration model has been celebrated. Interestingly, the move has helped them distribute responsibilities pertaining to food services, transportation and logistics. There have been reports of them training autistic persons to read satellite imagery. Israel's Special in Uniform (SIU) programme, in partnership with the Jewish National Fund, offers young Israelis with intellectual and developmental disabilities the skills and training necessary to thrive in the IDF.

Delhi-based V Muralidharan, who is the general secretary of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, has called for a withdrawal of the notification and plans to file a PIL in the High Court. Pic/Nishad Alam

The 2011 census estimated that the number of people with disabilities in India is close to 2.68 crore - that is more than the entire population of Australia. About 2.2 per cent of India's population lives with some kind of physical or mental disability, as per the National Statistics Office report released in 2019.

In 2016, after years of advocacy by disability rights activists with the government, the Indian Parliament expanded the number of disabilities covered under the law from seven to 21, which recognised deformities and injuries of acid attack survivors as disabilities, entitling them to relief measures. Ali says that India has the highest percentage of disabled population in the world, which makes the government's move baffling. "We should be setting an example and not coming up with regressive notifications." Section 20 of the RPwD Act, 2016, provides for non-discrimination in employment, reasonable accommodation, and an appropriate barrier-free and conducive environment to employees with disabilities.

Rashtriya Viklang Manch secretary-general Arun Kumar Singh, a resident of Jamshedpur, has been trying to galvanise all state units of the Manch, to use their personal social media accounts to register protest against the Centre's August 18 decision. "The problem is that a large chunk of those who live with disabilities in India are not social-media savvy. To get them to even tweet [in protest] has been a challenge. We have refrained from launching an on-ground agitation due to the prevalence of the Coronavirus."

The Manch has units in 23 states and an active presence in all the 24 districts of Jharkhand. Singh laments that such "a major policy decision" has not received the kind of reaction that he expected. "You can't take this big a decision without debating it in the Parliament. What's ironical is that on one hand, we are celebrating India's historic medal tally at the Tokyo Paralympic games, and on the other, are depriving the right to livelihood to the disabled." According to Singh, Indian firms aren't forerunners in inclusiveness, and with this decision one more avenue has been closed down. "With the government batting for privitisation of PSUs [public sector units] and handing roads and railway stations to the private sector, it will get all the more difficult for us to get jobs."

Rashtriya Viklang Manch secretary-general Arun Kumar Singh, a resident of Jamshedpur, has been trying to galvanise all-state units of the Manch, to use their personal social media accounts to register protest against the Centre's August 18 decision

Ali agrees that the pandemic set everyone back significantly, pushing the marginalised further towards the fringes. This decision will make matters worse. Last year, Singh led a campaign to express dismay at not receiving an ex-gratia of Rs 1,000. "We had to struggle to get this. Eventually, it was given in three installments." This amount was meant for working-age persons with disabilities who are part of the Indira Gandhi Disability Pension.

Delhi-based V Muralidharan, who is the general secretary of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, has called for a withdrawal of the notification and plans to file a PIL in the High Court. His worry is that the recent notification will also be applicable to people who suffer a disability during service. "For instance, if a personnel employed in either of the said combatant services acquires a disability during the service period, he will not be able to exercise the rights to reasonable accommodation, non-discrimination, and promotion if the combattant services are exempted from the provisions under Section 20 of the RPwD Act, 2016." According to him, a 2010 incident paved the way for accommodating more disabled personnel in alternative positions. "A CRPF jawan was coming back from leave and the bus that he was travelling in, overturned. He lost his sight in the accident. The CRPF relieved him of his duties. He, however, challenged the decision in the Delhi High Court and the bench ruled in his favour. He was reinstated, making it a landmark judgment." The armed forces recently put forth a proposal for grant of disability pension to cadets who are injured and invalidated on medical grounds from military training academies.

In Sheikh's constituency, there are at least seven police personnel with disabilities working in non-combat positions. "Given the situation in the state, it's not common for officers to acquire disabilities during their tenure. It happens during militant encounters, gunfights and other law and order situations," he says.

Incidentally, a disabilities chief commissioner has not been appointed for the last three years, observes Muralidharan. "No appointment has been made for the chairperson of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) or for the chairperson of the National Trust. This government has been high on optics. It comes forth with promises, but doesn't deliver. Although it talks of rights [of the disabled], its approach has been one of charity and this is clearly visible in the mega camps that it has been organising for the PM to distribute aids, which otherwise could have been delivered at the recipient's doorstep
without fanfare."

While the National Trust has been set up to discharge legal and welfare duties, the mandate given to the RCI is to regulate services given to persons with disabilities, standardise syllabi and to maintain a Central Rehabilitation Register of all qualified professionals working in the field of Rehabilitation and Special Education. mid-day tried reaching out to Railways Board spokesperson RD Bajpai and the Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey, but received no response. Meanwhile, Singh hopes to continue with the virtual protests full throttle. "The government calls us divyangjan [loosely translates to divine-gifted]. We don't need these lofty terms. Just give us opportunities for employment and make us equal partners in development and decision-making."

2007
Year in which the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was ratified by India