Center plans stricter norms for disability certificates; activists fear fresh hurdles
- The Union government recently published draft amendments to the Rules of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD Act) of 2016.
- Highlights:
Highlights:
- This is in a bid to tighten the requirements for obtaining a disability certificate
- The proposed changes including mandatory identity proof, medical authority involvement, and a longer process come
- This comes in the wake of the row over Puja Khedkar, a dismissed IAS probationer accused of faking her disability certificates.
- The amended Rules will require people with disabilities to mandatorily submit proof of identity, a photo not older than six months, and an Aadhaar card.
- The draft amendments propose that only medical authorities be considered competent to receive and process applications for disability certificates
- Experts and activists in the disability sector said that these proposed amendments will not do much to tackle the menace of fake disability certificates, which they argued was a result of systemic corruption.
- Instead, they said, the potential new Rules will make it harder for genuine applicants to get through the system.
- These amendments to the Rules governing the RPwD Act, 2016 were published by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in The Gazette of India as a draft and made public for objections and suggestions.
Prelims Takeaway
- Persons with Disabilities Act