MARGINAIZING DISABIED AND THE DISABILITY COMMISSION

The recent post put up by Komal Gupta,( KOMAL GUPTA BREAKS THE LAW AND GETS EMOTIONAL ATYACHAR AS PUNISHMENT) is surely a very interesting one and makes you think. Taking the post forward from, where Komal has ended his write-up, it can be said that disability is a very personal issue and unless and until you yourself go through the various problems faced by persons with disabilities, you cannot understand their pain or find an answer to their problem.
Whereas, we accuse non-disabled people to be partial and not understand our problems, it is most unfortunate that even we as persons with disabilities fail to understand each-others problems and difficulties. At least I personally as a person with disabilities can be accused of not understanding and taking up my friend Sonu Bhola’s issue properly and I should be ashamed of it.
As mentioned by Komal, in an incident that took place a couple of weeks back, while returning from his office one fine evening on his specially made disabled friendly scooter, Sonu was stopped by a traffic police inspector and was asked to pay a monetary fine. Further, when Sonu, a person with Polio, tried to take up the issue with the concerned traffic police officer, he was told, “We are just doing our duty and we are suppose to challan a certain number of people and you are one of them.” Thus, despite no fault of his and the concerned inspector knowing Sonu’s condition fully well, Sonu was challaned and had to pay a monetary fine and being a person with disabilities, that he is, he could do nothing about it.
As Komal’s post also seems to suggest, since persons with disabilities are an easy target, who due to their physical problems cannot protest, the police allegedly feels that they can get some easy bucks out of pocket.
But, after going through the incidents that took place with both Komal and Sonu and the feeling of pain the you go through after reading the discriminatory treatment that was given to both of them in these cases, you also tend to feel that there is a strong and an urgent need to find a solution to these problems,
If you ask the disability activist like Dinesh Gupta of the Friends Organization, they point out that the Disability Commissioner, which has been provided under the Persons With Disabilities act 1995, is an important instrument in the hands of persons with Disabilities, whose job is to address the problems and injustice caused to them.
In fact, even ordinary people, who are not directly connected with disability and disability movement in any way also realize the important of the Persons with disabilities act 1995 and the powers it provides to the commission of disability to ensure that person with disabilities get their dues from the society., A recent example of this was seen, when being called a person with unsound mind and insulted for reminding for payment of petroleum products that he had sold to a customer on credit, Mr. Komal Gupta , a graduate with Cerebral Palsy, threatened to take the matter to the commission of disabilities. Though he was insulted by an employee, after he informed the concerned company about his decision, Komal immediately received a call from the top bosses of the company, who then apologized for the rude behavior of their employee.
The cases of both Komal Gupta and Sonu Bhola once again highlight the insensitive behavior of the ordinary people towards persons with disabilities. It is this insensitivity that makes persons with disabilities a soft target even for agencies like the police. And eventually when this insensitivity leads to injustice then as a last resort persons with disabilities have to take the matter to the commissioner of disability to get such small matters resolved and to ensure that no one takes an undue advantage of them due to their disability.
Yet on the other hand, if you have a closer look at the entire issue, you may realize that both Komal and Sonu are among a very few selected people, who can be termed as extremely lucky. At least, being the self-advocates that they are, they know that there is a disability commission out there, which looks into the interests of persons with disabilities and takes up their case, in case such a need arises. There are thousands and thousands of persons with disabilities and their families even in a metropolitan city like Delhi who don’t even know that such a commission exists on the ground and takes up their issue.
This rude reality became clear, when despite the law that the disability certificate for persons with disabilities must be issued within one month of application, it was found that in certain cases persons with sever disabilities have to wait till 18 months to get this small piece of document. Moreover, the applicants are so scared to raise their voice against the hospital authorities, fearing that if they speak, the hospital will stall the entire process of issuing the certificate and they will have no-where to go.
The very idea of setting up a disability commission is based on the concept that since persons with disabilities are a marginalized sector, who often being subjected to injustice have to suffer and therefore need the services of such a commission to help them out. Yet, the fact on the ground remain that it is only the more educated and alert persons with disabilities like Sonu Bhola, Komal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta, who understand the concept and the working of this commission and take its advantage. Most persons with disabilities still accept all the injustice that take place with them as their fate and do nothing about it as all. Since there is no uniformity among persons with disabilities to bring every act of injustice against them to the notice of the commission, they are being repeatedly faced with all sorts of humiliations.
There is a need for the commission of disability to spread awareness regarding their activities. This is a two way process where the commission should speared awareness about its activities and take up more cases to ensure that persons with disabilities have faith on them and share their problems with the commission. It is also the duty of the persons with disabilities to come out in the open and report every case of injustice to the commission. It is only then that ordinary people will know that persons with disabilities are also an equal part of the society and the kind of incidents take took place with Komal and Sonu will never take place again. Though it is unfortunate but only strict laws and reporting against such cases can change the situation.