‘Disability legislation must focus on rights, not charity’

The rights of people with disabilities can only be protected if the Constitution is amended to include punitive action for discrimination against them, said Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India. Speaking at a national-level meet of the National Platform For The Rights Of The Disabled, Ms. Karat said even the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2012, slated to be tabled in Parliament, did not include any punitive action. “There should be a universal card so that people with disabilities do not have to go to a separate place for railways passes, bus or transit passes, educational services, or jobs.” Critiquing the United Progressive Alliance government’s move to make corporate firms earmark 2 per cent of profits for Corporate Social Responsibility activities, even as it offers huge tax breaks to private companies, she said the “government must also make it mandatory that these CSR activities includes a focus on the issues of the disabled, by perhaps setting aside a fixed cess for this. This, of course, should go alongside our demand that corporate firms were taxed adequately, and those funds were used for providing services to citizens.” She emphasised that the disability rights movement should recognise separate requirements and needs of people living with different disabilities.