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The Central Government is in the process of bringing out a National Policy for Persons with Disability. The Draft Policy to this effect has been prepared and circulated among the concerned Ministries, professional organisations and NGOs for comments. This was stated by the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Smt. Meira Kumar while releasing a compilation of judgements made by court of law entitled “Judgements on Disability Issues :Case Digest, 2005.” Listing other measures taken by her Ministry in the recent past, Smt. Kumar stated that the Government is updating the list of identified posts for the persons with disability to felicitate benefit of reservation against larger number of posts. Smt. Kumar said that her Ministry is also reviewing various provisions of Persons with Disability Act in order to update the legislation. She said that Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has been synergising its activities with the Ministry of Human Resource Development for wider coverage of inclusive education.
Felicitating the office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disability for bringing out the compilation of judgements, Smt. Kumar said that it will constitute an important reference material for not only the legal practitioners but also to others who are working for protection of rights of persons with disabilities.
The compilation contains 20 judgements of Supreme Court, 56 High Courts and 4 of CAT Benches pronounced since 1930 to 2004 brings out the evolution of law over a period of almost 75 years. This initiative is first of its kind and will help all concerned for reference on a variety of disability issues, for quicker delivery of justice to persons with disability.
Smt. Kumar also released the Tele-training Modules for Teachers on Inclusive Education, Module on Management of Children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities and also the Findings of the Study on Status of Education of Children with Disabilities in India with special reference to girl child.
The study says that according to the NSS, 55% persons with disability are illiterate. The study says that accessibility to education is a major problem. It says that in urban areas 11% of disabled children in the age group of 5 to 18 years are enrolled in schools. The enrollment of boys with disability is 23% higher than that of girls. The Study adds that the drop out rate of girls is higher than that of boys.
The Social Justice & Empowerment Secretary Smt. Sarita Prasad said that retention rate of children with disabilities in schools assisted under UNDP project is 90% compared to 60% in general. She said that prevalence of disability is higher in rural areas.
MLD:LK:sje-19(12.7)
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