India to change education laws to better include disabled children

From the Economic Times in India:

NEW DELHI, India -- The Manmohan Singh government plans to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 to broaden the ambit of
“disadvantaged” children to include children with disabilities. It would like to introduce the amendments in the winter session of Parliament. The ministry of human resource development (HRD) will be seeking Cabinet approval shortly for the changes.

This move would allow differently-abled children from economically weaker and disadvantaged sections to take advantage of the 25% seats set aside in private unaided school under Clause 12 of the Act. This had been a key demand of disability activists when they met HRD minister Kapil Sibal.

The ministry also plans to introduce changes in Clause 3 of the Act to extend the right to free and compulsory education to children suffering from disabilities as defined in the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.

This Act deals with severe mental retardation and goes beyond the scope of the Disabilities Act. At present, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act is applicable to differently-abled children covered by the Disabilities Act.

This move by the ministry of human resource development is in response to the protests by disability activists in August, just ahead of the legislation being taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha. At the time, the ministry had suggested that it could amend the Act after due consultation with those who work and research on issues relating to the education of children suffering from severe mental disabilities. The ministry had also considered a higher outlay for home-based education, which many children with severe disabilities require.

This effort to draw in larger number of children with disability also comes on the back of data gathered by a survey conducted by the IMRB. The survey found that 34.12% of children with disability were out of school. The national average for children in the age group of 6 to 13 years is 4.22%.

This figure is lower than the situation in 2005 when IMRB found the percentage of children out of school at 38.13. The highest concentration of out of school children is among those with visual disabilities (46%) and multiple disabilities (58.57%).