Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities

Health is a critical component for persons with disabilities, especially because of our impairment itself.

And the disability community have been advocating for inclusive healthcare and accessible healthcare systems in, at the state level and um uh, at the national level as well.

As a result of our advocacy at the national level, uh the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities also um worked with the Health ministry, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and they arrived at a draft standards on Accessible healthcare uh services, which the disability community discussed at large and we have been advocating towards, you know, a comprehensive, and, lot of adaptations within the standards, which actually came through um, a year back and uh you know,.

I have also been working towards that and I met multiple officials at the health ministerial level and uh in that process, I could also meet with the NHSRC and uh different other health departments, uh and officials and push the agenda on inclusive health uh services for persons with disabilities, because there is no disaggregated data available on persons with disabilities accessing health schemes and also um uh focused intervention on disability and health is kind of missing.

And uh so, we developed as a National Advocacy Group and we work towards that and then we identified that the National Family Health Survey, which was uh uh looking at the maternal and child care um of the entire country and this survey uh in its NFHS sixth round has missed out on disability questions, and we advocated towards that.

Uh, but the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released a notification saying that uh it was decided at the Technical Advisory Committee and so disability questions are left, whereas there is no person with disability or nobody from the disability community, no health expert from the disability community is involved in the Technical Advisory Committee, which we have been advocating earlier.

Uh the entire disability movement from the country have written to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on inclusion of disability questions in NFHS 6 and also wrote a lot of rebuttal letters, um, you know, we campaigned with the parliamentarians and they also supported us.

They showed their solidarity on uh, you know, being disability included in NFHS 6 and all that but then uh Ministry was very firm and so the disability community have filed Public Interest Litigations in three states, in Tamil Nadu, um Kolkata High Court, West Bengal and Bengaluru, um Karnataka.

Um, so, the case is in process, whereas the survey is also at the stage of closing and um um, at this point of time it is difficult to include disability questions whereas our ask is to include it from the next round onwards and don’t exclude in any further rounds because when you are talking about uh, you know, different aspects, like family health or maternal health, child health or women empowerment, what about disaggregated data of persons with disabilities?

What about mothers with disabilities?

What about children with disabilities?

What about women with disabilities empowerment?

So these are the questions which uh, we have been asking the um Health Ministry and the same points is being put up before the court also.

Let us wait and see what the court ruling will be.

And towards this we are also asking for including people with disabilities at the decision making level of the Health Ministry, you know, to have nodal offices, um, for disability inclusion or to have committee uh, for all 21 disabilities under the Health Ministry.

So, these kind of system, if it is set in place, then, you know, we can achieve uh some extent of inclusion within the health uh schemes and programs.

I was also part of the universal health coverage global platforms and I was the uh representing the global south for UXC 2030 platform from the civil society engagement mechanism, where the universal health coverage aspect is being deliberated a lot and how civil society can take that forward in our own countries.

And back in India, we have our government looking at uh Ayushman Bharat and also the health and wellness centers in, at the community level, uh with which the disability community started advocating.

We also started a national campaign on universal uh health coverage calling USC for India, uh and at the state level also we have been advocating and in Tamil Nadu, uh you know, Tamil Nadu government have come up with a scheme called Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam where medicines would be provided at the doorsteps and also the treatment um towards that and right now people are getting treated for diabetes, hypertension and uh uh few other diseases at home.

Where we uh advocated to include disability services within the, you know, scheme, at the state level we also worked through the State Advisory Board for Persons with Disabilities and um as a result of our advocacy, our Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu have inaugurated therapy vans which would go to the doorstep of people with disabilities and get their physiotherapy and other rehabilitation um you know, aspects done.

And uh, so, as disability community what we have achieved is very very little whereas we have to focus more on this aspect because without health, there is nothing in life.

So, health is very very important and the disability movement should focus more on this and come together so that we can achieve a totally inclusive and accessible healthcare system in the country and without any out of pocket expenditure by any person with disability.