Amendment of the Persons with Disability Act, 1995

November 21, 2007

(AIeF). Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment of the Government of

India is in the process of amending the Persons with Disability Act,

1995 to make it more effective in the present context. Stating this

at a joint workshop of the Ministry and the World Bank, the Minister

of Social Justice & Empowerment, Smt. Meira Kumar said that her

Ministry is following a consultative process for this purpose where

the stakeholders representing Disabled Peoples' Organizations, NGOs,

experts of various disciplines and members of civil society are

participating.

Increasingly, asymptomatic HIV is considered per se disability. It

may be appropriate for the Indian HIV/AIDS civil society to explore

the implications of Amendment of the Persons with Disability Act, 1995

According to the press release of the Ministry of social justice and

empowerment, Kumar said that the consultations with regard to

proposed changes in the Act were held across the country to ensure

that the concerns from different regions are adequately addressed

when the Ministry proposes the amendments in the Act.

Referring to the UN Convention on the rights of persons with

disabilities, the Minister said that it has brought out a number of

new concepts like alternative mode of communication, concept of

accessibility of Information and Communication

Technologies including web access to PWDs and the concept of

reasonable accommodation to enable them to be equal participant in

all spheres of activities. These concepts would be considered in due

course and necessary changes in legislations, rules, policies and

programmes of the Government would be made, she said.

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