NCPEDP’s Journey Towards Inclusion – Trinayani

What are the core pillars of NCPEDP and its key initiatives?

It’s been seven years for me that I’m working with NCPEDP and I have learned and grown a lot while working with this organization.

I have the…I had the privilege of working with Mr. Abidi.

NCPEDP works on six core pillars which are employment, education, accessibility, law and awareness and youth.

Youth being one of the core pillars and there is a lot that we do around youth.

NCPEDP also established the National Disability Network and the National Committee for the Rights of People with disabilities.

These are two groups that, which is pan India.

So NCPEDP in Delhi has these partners across India in different states.

These are individuals, these are organizations who collectively work towards bringing changes in the disability space in this country.

How has the disability sector transformed over the past 20-25 years?

Hi, I am Akshay and I lead the advocacy initiatives at NCPEDP.

If you look at the journey of the disability sector over past 20 to 25 years, we have come a long way.

You see from the legislation of the 1995 and then the 2016 legislation there has been a lot of changes, in terms of the approach that legislation has had towards persons with disabilities and the legislat…legislative approach that the 2016 Act has towards persons with disabilities.

If you, if we talk about, you know, the current policy changes or the recent policy changes, there’s been a lot of great transformative practices that we have seen.

For instance, if you look at the guidelines that come from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, now we have Accessibility guidelines there.

So there is sign language interpretation that you can see.

If you watch IPL matches or if you watch news channels you will see a sign language interpreter doing the interpretation that gives accessibility to millions of people who are deaf or, you know, hard of hearing.

Similarly, if you look at health insurance, it was one of the biggest issues for persons with disabilities because till 2023 there was no private insurance company that was giving health insurance to persons with disabilities.

But after 2023, IRDAI, that is I R D A I, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India and NHRC and the ministries, with the collective support of these organizations, private insurance companies provide health insurance to persons with disabilities nowadays.

However, there is still a need for changes in the existing products, but there are some products.

Similarly, NCPEDP from this year, has been working on Ayushman Bharat, which is a very ambitious mission and vision of our Honorable Prime Minister.
It aims to provide free insurance schemes to everyone in society without any age or income criteria, yet persons with disabilities remain excluded from the scheme.
So we’re trying to work around that.

What are the key provisions of the RPWD Act, 2016?

So, as you know, the 2016 Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act introduced many new provisions as compared to the 1995 Act.

In the 2016 Act we have 21 types of disabilities that we identify.

If we talk about education, reservation and early intervention and early identification of disabilities have been highlighted.

The law states that every school must conduct screenings at regular intervals of school-going students, to identify if they have any sort of disabilities.

Similarly if we talk about employment, apart from reservation there are multiple provisions, you know, like, reasonable accommodation at workplace, where employers have to ensure that their employees with disabilities get the right set of accommodations or flexible environments that they’re looking for.

Let’s talk about the Equal Opportunity Policy that states that everyone must be given equal rights without any discrimination.
The most important Sections are Sections 40 to 45, which states accessibility in transport, accessibility in infrastructure, accessibility in products and services, and accessibility in communication.
According to the law, within a certain period after the law is enacted, all facilities, products, services, and infrastructure should be designed according to the needs of persons with disabilities and in line with the principles of universal design. This is what our law mandates.
And it’s noteworthy that the laws of our country, it’s one of the most progressive legislations on disability across the world.

However, the need that we recognize today is for everyone, all stakeholders, the entire disability sector to come together and join hands in making it implementable and making it enforceable.

Could you provide insights into some of NCPEDP’s recent initiatives?

You know, earlier this year (2024) we did something really exciting and I want to show this.

This is a manifesto for and by citizens with disabilities.

First time ever in the country, such a Manifesto was developed in light of the general elections, 2024.

We reached out to about 15,000 people to create this manifesto.

So we reached out to persons with disabilities, 15,000 people with disabilities across the country.

We did not miss a single state or a union territory.
They came to us, mentioned what they need from the government, what are their challenges, based on which we developed this manifesto with 10 critical demands.
You know, this was endorsed by more than 600 organizations in the country and it garnered international attention across.
It mentions very crucial demands, like social security, like accessible healthcare, like reasonable accommodation at workplace, and then, you know, political participation for people with disabilities.
Our government has a vision for 2047, outlining where we aspire to be as we celebrate 100 years of independence.
Similarly, the vision of the disability sector is that in the coming years, persons with disabilities will become leaders of this country and serve as representatives, ensuring that their voices are truly included
Recently, just a few weeks ago, we released a guideline, Media Toolkit for journalists and the media fraternity on how to address, how to portray, and how to talk about people with disabilities when you, when you interview them or when you write stories about them, because, you know, recently, there have been multiple cases on social media, and you see a stigma, a a a misappropriation or a misconception how to talk on disability and you know, we don’t understand it properly.
So, this toolkit helps people to understand what disability is, what are the right terms to use, and how should we talk about it in general.
These are some broader policy initiatives that NCPEDP is undertaking right now.
Similarly, access to justice is a big challenge.
So, in November 2024, Supreme Court passed a judgment.
The judgment stated that accessibility is a fundamental criterion, an integral part of our Constitution, and should be interpreted within the same ambit.
This is important because today, whether you talk about products, services, or transport, or jobs, or education, or health, anywhere at all, if there is no accessibility, then millions of people with disabilities are, you know, being excluded.
Under our second pillar, which is education, three years ago, we launched a scholarship for students with disabilities, which was supported by Bajaj Finserv, to reduce the dropout rate of students with disabilities in higher education, was the focus.
We have covered two states, Maharashtra and UP, where we initially thought that we will be able to cover 100 students, but I would mention it very happily that we have been able to cover more than 150 students.
What we are providing them?
We are giving them their course fee, we are helping them with assistive devices, we’re also helping them with the workshops, capacity building workshops where we talk about the disability laws in India, we give them financial literacy, we also give them how to be job-ready after qualifying, after completing your courses.
This is a very comprehensive project which actually helps building the potential of these students.
It starts from 8th till higher…higher education.

How does assistive technology (AT) empower persons with disabilities, and what role does NCPEDP play in its advancement?

Assistive technology actually plays a very big role in ensuring equal participation of people with disabilities in India.
NDN and NCRPD are the two groups that NCPEDP developed and through these two groups, across India we work to promote causes for people with disabilities and solutions for people with disabilities.
When we talk about AT, we started working on the assistive technology fifteen years back when we came up with the idea of Universal Design Awards.
Through these awards, we recognize and identify individuals and organizations that promote accessibility, reflecting the idea behind assistive technology, which makes life easier for people with disabilities or others who benefit from it.
In 2024, we launched an Assistive Technology Hub, promoting networking among all the stakeholders who are working on this concept of AT.
Be…they can be innovators, they can be researchers, they can be academia, and government, and everybody and anybody who’s anywhere involved in developing AT or in any, in any way if they are connected with AT, they come together.
The target is, the goal is that we work on awareness generation, also making AT available for individuals with disabilities and the elderly.
Recently, when we introduced this project, there is a concept of seed fund which we give to the start-ups, and we have selected 16 such start-ups who are being funded under this project.
And there is scope for few more start-ups to come and receive these funds.
They…the process is that they pitch for their work and they get shortlisted and selected by the jury panel and then the selection happens.
We are focusing cross-disability, be it locomotor or blind, or learning disabilities, and other disabilities that are mentioned in the RPWD Act, including the invisible disabilities.
We aim to cover all these aspects with AT (Assistive Technology)
What challenges arise in advocating for the disability sector?
There are multiple challenges also when we work in advocacy and the biggest challenge comes with data because we do not have the right set of data.

We have been working on data since long, and from the 2001 to 2011 Census, NCPD and the entire disability sector took significant steps to ensure the inclusion of disability in the census.
However, since the census has not been conducted since 2011, so we are relying on a data which is 13-years-old.
Even today, in our country, we believe the number of people with disabilities is 2.5 crores, but the World Health Organization estimates that India is with the biggest population of people with disabilities, and the number is no less than 15 crores.
This lack of data is the reason that policy gaps have remained because we don’t know what kind of people, what, what is the amount size that we are working for or what is, what is the amount of people that need these kind of policies.
So there are challenges like this, and beyond this, my personal challenge, which I face and observe every day, is that we often get confused about what advocacy is.
We think that advocacy is just confronting with the government, but it’s not the case.
Most of the time, it’s collaborations.
It’s collaborations with the government and with all other stakeholders because, you know, if we want to see any change in society, you want to see that impact, it’s a collaborative efforts, it’s collaborative mechanisms from all pillars, be it government, civil society organizations, or individuals, or media for that matter.
We all have to come together to solve the challenges in our society.
There is one thing that keeps me going, you know, that motivates me every day to work for what we do, and that is to see an equal and just society and you know, to maybe, to see a person with disability leading the country someday.