Disability activists are up in arms against the Disability Rights Bill that was approved by the Cabinet for tabling in Parliament in the extended Winter session that begins on Wednesday. The Bill is a watered-down version of what the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had put up on its website in October 2012, they claim.
“For a month, we have been demanding the tabling and passage of this Bill, the contents of which were not available in the public domain. However, we were shocked once the contents of the Bill were leaked.
Wasted effortsIt seemed as though all efforts put in over the last four-five years involving thousands of people and lakhs of rupees had been wasted, Javed Abidi, convenor of Disabled Rights Groups (DRG) said.
The Bill in its current form is a negation of already won rights, the activists point out.