The recent outburst by the Nagaland State Disability Forum against the denial of rights by Government of Nagaland require support from all and the immediate redressal by the government. Programmes by the concerned government agency in the state needs to be more goal oriented and practical than just PR photo-ops for the media.
Article 1 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) starts with “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” The opening lines are meaningful and complete in itself and do not require any further explanation. However since the declaration of the UNDHR in 1948 the human rights of people living with disabilities were neglected in many countries. This led to the watershed moment for people with disabilities in the form of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)in 2007. The reason cited by the UN for a convention was because the rights enumerated in UNDHR would be enough to protect everyone in a perfect world. But in practice certain groups of people fared far worse than other groups. The world had 650 million persons, about 10% of the world population living with disabilities then. The convention became a treaty on 3rd may 2008 and India is also one of the signatories.
The state government has to correct the mindset of its officials first then the citizens with regard to the rights for people with disabilities. Indeed like any other culture across the world and throughout history, Nagaland also suffers from the wrong perspectives when it comes to people with disabilities. They are viewed as individuals who require societal protection and evoking sympathy rather than respect. It is the duty of the concerned department to correct this wrong. The continued usage of the word “handicapped”, actually considered as offensive, by many government officials do not indicate success of the government initiated awareness programmes. The word is no longer used because it connotes that people with disabilities require charity and disabilities do not handicap but attitudes and architecture do. We are indeed in the dark ages by not even able to correct a word in to the more political correct term in our day to day usage.
The current performance of the state government with regard to PWDs puts to shame the citizens of the 16th state of India. The current inactivity of the government that has failed even to implement its own legislation is indeed a violation of the rights of People with Disabilities.