Implication of UNCRPD for National Institutes

1. Implication of UNCRPD for National Institutes Dr. Tomy Mampilly Director (I/C), NIEPMD UN Headquarters

2. UN- United Nations Organization has been funded by US President Franklin D Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchchill on August 14th 1941. Its Headquarters is Peace Plaza in New York. It has members from 185 countries.

3. UNCRPD • UNCRPD and its Optional Protocol- has already come into force and needs to be implemented. • UNCRPD is the first human rights treaty to be finalized in this century. • The international community has shown readiness to recognize that disability is a human rights issue

4. What is a convention ? A convention is a legally binding agreement made between two or more countries.

5. Differences between Convention & Declaration

6. Once the Convention has been drafted it is first adapted by the UN General Assembly • UNCRPD & Optional Protocol was unanimously adopted by the UN Gen. Association on 13th Dec 2006 • After it was adopted, it was opened for signature on March 30th 2007. • 81 countries signed the convention on the first day. • India was among the first countries to sign the convention.

7. After signing the convention it goes through another formal process called Ratification i.e. by the Parliament of UN. • Later the convention is called the state Policy, where necessary steps are taken to make sure that the citizens of country enjoy the rights in the convention. • India ratified the convention on October 1st 2007. • Now the convention comes into force- meaning implementation.

8. WHY do we need UNCRPD ? • “Existing human rights convention have been underutilized for disability issues” ( Quote- special rapporteur on disability-UN) • PWDs isolated and separate; voices & concerns not heard & addressed. • Govt’s reports rarely take the situation of children or women with disabilities. • Policies and programmes of Govt rarely include all the concerns of PWDs.

9. Establishment of NIs NIRTAR • NIRTAR - 1974 • IPH - 1975 • NIOH - 1978 • NIVH - 1979 • NIHH - 1983 • NIMH - 1984 • NIEPMD - 2005 NIHH IPH NIMH NIEPMD

10. Establishment of CRC’s • Bhopal - 2000 • Srinagar - 2000 • Guwahati - 2001 • Sundernagar - 2001 • Lucknow - 2001 • Patna - 2009 CRC, Sundernagar CRC, Srinagar

12. Objectives of NI’s and CRC’s • Appropriate models of care and rehabilitation suitable to Indian conditions. • Human Resource Development for delivery of services. • Identify, conduct and coordinate research. • Consultancy services and assistance to voluntary organizations. • Documentation and information centre • Statistics- magnitude/causes, rural-urban composition, socio-economic factors, etc. • Promote and stimulate growth of various kinds of quality resources in the country and in the state.

13. NI’s Compliance with UNCRPD NIs 13

14. Actions taken by NIs Article 7- CWDs • R & D activities for CWMR and others • EIcs for persons with hearing impairment • Training normal school teachers in issues of Locomotor Disabilities • Longitudinal study on CP children's since 1992. • NIEPMD- Early intervention services, Special Education services to the children with multiple disabilities.

15. Actions taken by NIs Article 8- Awareness Raising • Awareness Materials on Mental Retardation- books, posters, booklets, leaflets, flip charts and multimedia mass communication tools like short films CDs etc. • Mega serial in Marathi language regarding rehabilitation & intervention broadcasted on AIR. • Launched informative and interactive accessible (WCAG 1.0) website on speech and hearing.

16. Actions taken by NIs Article 8- Awareness Raising (cont…) • Training to the railway porter- Pilot Training & awareness programme at Sealdah station Kolkata, WB on 5th March 2010. • The MSJ & E project- Causes, prevention and identification of persons with disabilities- orientation and sensitization programme for Anganwadi workers.

17. Actions taken by NIs Article 9- Accessibility • Programmes on accessibility in housing to PWDs. • Awareness creation on accessibility aspects through postgraduate dissertations. • Induction loop systems in public places have been installed. • NIEPMD is Barrier free/ Universal design. • Advocacy to public service providers on accessibility issues.

18. Actions taken by NIs Article 19- Independent living/ Community Inclusion • CBR programmes of NIs resulted in inclusion of persons with Disabilities in the society. • NIEPMD has initiated a “family empowerment model” . • The employment , training and access to technology such as SMS communication helped the person with deafness to live independently.

19. Actions taken by NIs Article 20- Personal Mobility • Training programmes on developing mobility skills. • Travel benefits to PWDs. • CWMDs- various kinds of mobility aids with training regarding their use.

20. Actions taken by NIs Article 24- Education • Facilitating inclusion after preparing the teachers. • All NIs, their RCs and CRCs are conducting various long term and Short term HRD programmes.

21. Actions taken by NIs Article 26- Habilitation and Rehabilitation • All NIs have developed various Models of Service Delivery- IBR, CBR, EBR through team approaches.

22. Actions taken by NIs Article 27- Work & Employment • Employers’ education programmes in various Govt. of India organizations on employing PWDs. • NIs have departments of Adult Independent Living/ Vocational Training both for Clients and their families. • DAIL of NIEPMD has a family empowerment model.

23. Actions taken by NIs Article 30- Participation in Cultural life, Recreation, Leisure and Sports • Many local and national level cultural events exclusively for persons with mental retardation • Association with Special Olympics for persons with mental retardation both at local and national levels • The ISL supports the cultural life of persons with deafness.

24. Actions taken by NIs Article 30- Participation in Cultural life, Recreation, Leisure and Sports (cont..) • Recreation activities such as mime shows by person with deafness are conducted. • NIEPMD organized Southern regional sports for persons with multiple disabilities- 342 participants 225 events, 5 states.

25. Actions taken by NIs Article 31- Statistics & Data Collection • NIs has been associated with NSSO in developing the statistical data for its report in 2001 • NIs has developed questionnaire on various disabilities to be used for conducting the survey • The AYJNIHH is declared as National lead center for implementing international classification based on functional disability. • NIEPMD has initiated a data base on PWMDs.

26. Reservations on the Convention • The Convention need to define disability clearly • Facilities for Inclusion are minimal • Specific time frame need to be mentioned for implementation of UNCRPD • Proper in built monitoring system need to be incorporate

27. Reservations on the Convention (cont..) • Clear guidelines for resource management in implementing the scheme in various countries • The legal specifications are not clear hence people may or may not implement it • Point No:2 of Article 4. mentions “Maximum of its available resources” which will make countries not to implement. • It is not country specific • Information regarding specification of HRD programmes • There is nothing about the finances for the projects/ schemes particularly for the developing countries

28. Recommendations • There is an immediate need to amend the RCI Act1992,PWD Act1995,National Trust Act 1999 to be in consonance with the UNCRPD. • National commission on the lines of human Rights Commission need to be constituted to ensure social justice & empowerment to the PWD’s. • All govt. employees need to undergo one week training on these Acts and Conventions

29. Recommendations (Cont..) • Lawyers and judiciary need to be oriented on the legislation of the disability and rehabilitation. • All PWDs have to be provided Unique ID and on- line access to track the availability and provision of services, schemes and redressal of grievances, disposal of applications etc. • In case of persons with intellectual disabilities, autism, CP and multiple disabilities, helpline outlets can be established with the retailers so that if they are missing they are helped to reach their families. It should be implemented from city to village.

30. Recommendations (Cont…) • Compulsory inclusive education in the existing schools has to be undertaken atleast for the Mild & Moderate categories. • Institutes engaged in human resource development in medical and health areas have to create facilities for providing services to the PWDs, particularly prevention, early intervention, therapeutic services and corrective surgeries.

31. Recommendations (Cont…) • A separate Ministry for the Disability has to be created at the Central and all State Government levels. (In this regard Govt. of Tamil Nadu has already established a separate ministry for persons with disabilities which is directly under Chief Minister)

32. Recommendations (Cont…) • Assistive Technology has to be developed in the IIT’s for which exclusive schemes and guidelines have to be developed. • Information and Communication Technology has to be leveraged to a great extent for the empowerment of the PWDs. An exclusive Institute in collaboration with IIT’s and NI’s can be established to focus on research and technology development for the PWDs.

34. This is What we need to do Thank you