Rights Of Persons With Disabilities Research Articles

Disability Inclusion in the National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS: A Review on the National Response of West African Countries

Objectives: Persons with disabilities (PWD) often experience risks associated with HIV/AIDS including unmet needs and overlooked stigmatization. This could be attributed to certain misconceptions such as PWDs are asexual, and cannot enjoy sexual pleasure, among others. Therefore, this paper sought to investigate the extent of disability inclusion in recent National Strategic Plans (NSPs) for HIV/AIDS in West African countries. Methods: This study was a policy review of NSPs in 13 African countries. Relevant indicators in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UNAIDS International Guidelines on HIV and Human Rights were used. Six indicators (identification of people living with disability (PLWD) as a key population, the inclusion of principles related to PWD within the NSPs on HIV/AIDS, protecting the rights of PWD, recognition of PWD as a vulnerable population at higher risk of HIV and in need of special protection, providing HIV-related support services for PWD and monitoring and evaluating the impact of HIV on PWD). Results: Findings from this study revealed that only 30% of West African countries recognized disability as an issue of concern. Also, 38.5% of these countries recognize the vulnerability of people with disabilities to HIV. However, only a few (7.6%) provided support in the context of special needs, monitoring, and surveillance specifically for persons with disabilities. Conclusion: Most of the West African NSPs are outdated and due for renewal. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate the needs of persons with disabilities within the context of HIV/AIDS in the NSPs. More importantly, support and services should also be prioritized among the vulnerable groups to optimize inclusion.

Profile of patients coming to the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation for locomotor disability certification: a 5-years observational study

Background: The persons with locomotor disability are eligible for various social welfare benefits from the Government under ‘The persons with disabilities (Equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation) Act, 1995’ along with other causes of disabilities like blindness, hearing impairment etc. and recent enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016. Understanding the utilization of services is crucial in enhancing assistance for individuals with certifiable disabilities. This study aimed to observe the clinico-demographic profile of patients coming to outpatient Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitations for locomotor disabilities certification and 5 years’ trend in the number of patients getting disability certificate. Methods: This retrospective study was based on the data taken at time of disability certification in a multispecialty tertiary care government medical college in Northern India. All persons with locomotor disability who were issued disability certificate between 2014 and 2018 were included in the study. Results: A total of 857 patients were issued disability certificates during the study period of 2014 to 2018. Among the 744 adult patients, only 149 (20%) were female. Most of them were urban residents. In locomotor disability, post-polio residual paralysis was the most common diagnosis encountered, followed by amputations and cerebral palsy. Most of the applicants were having a disability of 40-50%. Conclusions: Awareness has to be generated about the disability benefits and disability certification. Utilisation of services by females should be encouraged. Robust data and literature need to be built up for prevention and management of locomotor disability.

Penta Helix Collaboration in Developing Social Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities

This research examines collaboration between the government, community, academia, entrepreneurs and the media, known as the ‘penta helix’, in developing social inclusion for persons with disabilities (PwD) in Indonesia. This descriptive and qualitative study collects data through observation, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. The research informants were determined purposively from representatives of the penta helix who were seen as understanding or having the authority to interact with PwD. For data analysis, Miles and Huberman’s interactive analysis model was employed. Regarding the five areas of the penta helix, the study found that the government exercised political power through the issuance of Regional Regulation 9 of 2020 concerning the protection and fulfilment of the rights of PwD. The regulation aims to ensure that PwD receive the same rights and opportunities as other citizens. The community has a role as social power through creating care classes for PwD for people to understand the culture and self-development of PwD. Academics function as a knowledge power by developing campus inclusion standards and collaborating with national and international funding institutions to carry out the three pillars of higher education on the issue of PwD. Industry plays a role as social justice power in supporting the provision of venture capital assistance and work skills training for PwD. The media holds the power of brand image so that discriminatory views against PwD transform into fulfilling the rights of PwD. Understanding stakeholders’ role in the penta helix collaboration helps develop a social inclusion model for PwD.

Every “reader” his or her “book”

Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan, an Indian librarian, and mathematician developed the Five Laws of Librarianship in 1931. Principles drawn from these laws undergird the design and delivery of library services to date. The second law states that “every reader his or her book”. This implies that libraries should deliver services and resources which are customised for the specific needs of unique categories of their users. The degree to which academic libraries in Kenya offer appropriate services to persons with disabilities (PWDs), particularly in the post-COVID-19 era, is unknown. This paper evaluates the services offered to PWDs by academic libraries in Kenya using Tangaza University College Library as a case study. Specifically, the paper assesses the preparedness of academic libraries in Kenya to meet the information needs of PWDs, identifies the services and resources offered to PWDs by academic libraries in Kenya, evaluates the usability of the services, and proposes a framework for providing information services to PWDs in academic libraries in Kenya in the post-COVID 19 era. This paper was developed using concurrent triangulated mixed methods research through which quantitative and qualitative data was collected from 11 librarians and 9 PWDs using questionnaires and interviews respectively. Due to the small number of the target population, a census was used. The findings of the study reveal that academic libraries are least prepared to offer information services and materials to PWDs. Although commendable efforts are being made, there are gaps in the conceptualization, design, and delivery of the services. There is a need for a framework to mainstream the needs of the PWDs in the bouquet of services offered by academic libraries in Kenya. The findings contribute to the discourses on the emerging role of libraries in safeguarding the information and communication rights of PWDs in Kenya and abroad in the post-COVID era. A framework to enhance information services to PWDs by academic libraries in Kenya is proposed.

Inclusive healthcare for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in advocacy and partnership in breast and cervical cancer screening through the EMPOWER Program.

e22510 Background: With the growing burden of Women cancers in Kenya, integrating cancer screening and prevention to optimize horizontal care delivery models is a paramount approach to strengthening women-centered and cost-effective primary healthcare. EMPOWER is a unique public-private-partnership with the County governments of Kenya, County referral hospitals, County First Ladies Association, International Cancer Institute, Patient organizations (Women4Cancer & Africa cancer Foundation), AMREF and Roche Kenya to demonstrate and deliver integrated cancer prevention, treatment and capacity building including Persons living with Disability (PWDs). Objectives: 1. Generate buy in from county leadership and key stakeholders for PWDs inclusivity in human resources for health. 2. Tangibly demonstrate women PWDs can contribute to community health systems community health volunteers and Promote the Integrated approach screening. 3. Improve access to breast and cervical cancer screening for and through PWDs. Methods: The Project is a multi-faceted advocacy approach, including political leadership engagement and stakeholder alignment. The political leadership engaged with local government officials to raise awareness of the issue and secure support for the initiative. The stakeholder alignment involved working with healthcare providers, community organizations, and PWDs to ensure that the initiative was inclusive and accessible. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to evaluate the impact of the advocacy efforts. Results: The project was successful in health management teams co-creating selecting and training 50 Women PWDs as community health volunteers, the first in Africa. The advocacy efforts led to an increase in screening rates for PWDs, with 30% more PWDs accessing screening services compared to the previous year. The PWDs involved in the initiative reported high levels of satisfaction with the program and appreciated the opportunity to play an active role in their own healthcare. Conclusions: The project demonstrated that it is possible to effectively implement inclusive healthcare for persons with disabilities (PWDs) through advocacy and partnerships. The successful adoption of advocacy to address disparities in breast and cervical cancer screening among PWDs highlights the potential for scaling up this work to reach a larger population. The alignment of political leadership and stakeholders, highlights the crucial role of creating a supportive environment to ensure the rights of PWDs to the highest attainable standard of health are upheld. Future efforts to address health disparities among PWDs should build on this approach, leveraging advocacy, partnerships, and cocreation of implementation to drive change at the community level.

Factors Influencing Employability of Persons with Disabilities in India: A Systematic Review Protocol

Employment is a social determinant of health. There is compelling evidence that work improves general health and well-being and reduces psychological stress. People with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed and generally earn less even when employed. Despite the recent strides in terms of legislative frameworks aligned to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) 2004 (which India ratified in 2007) like the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) act 2016, the social reality of the employment status of the Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) is in stark contrast. Several barriers contribute to the disadvantages experienced by people with disabilities while seeking jobs and retention of meaningful employment. Literature showed many studies regarding employment-related issues particularly employability of PwDs, but very few have studied local factors coming into play. This study aims to develop a systematic review protocol to systematically analyze and synthesize the existing knowledge within this area in India for planning future interventions. The protocol has already been registered to PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews. (Registration ID. CRD42023407717) Keywords: Persons with disabilities, Systematic review protocol, Employment, Health care, Sustainable development, Indian context, Rights of persons with disabilities

Access of Students with Disabilities (SWDs) to Higher Education in India with Special Reference to Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

This paper aims to examine the access to higher education for students with disabilities (SWDs) and identify the factors affecting their access and academic performance with special reference to Panjab University (PU). The statistical analysis was carried out using measures of central tendency (mean and median) and measures of dispersion (standard deviation), Kruskal–Wallis test (for more than two groups). Nonparametric Spearman’s rho correlations were used for the relationship. Growth rate was calculated with the log-lin and lin-log regression models. All statistical tests were seen at a two-tailed level of significance (p ≤ 0.01 and p ≤ 0.05). The study highlighted that students in higher education were heterogeneous on many accounts including on the basis of abilities. The enrolment rate of SWDs is increasing at 5.89%. However, access to SWDs is abysmally low (2%) in India against the norms of 5% reservation. The analysis of data revealed that not only were SWDs facing barriers such as physical infrastructure, academic and financial, but they were also prone to the indifferent behaviour of teachers and fellow students in a few instances. With a view to improve the access and academic performance of SWDs, speedy implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016, introducing infrastructure accessibility as a parameter to rank universities in the national ranking survey and providing accessible academic resources are the need of the hour.

Evaluation of Opportunities Provided Under the Normative Frameworks for Protection of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria and Indonesia

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) and its Optional Protocol in 2006 towards the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs) and to support the respect for their innate dignity. Nigeria and Indonesia have signed and ratified the UN CRPD as well as domesticated it in their respective domains. The purpose of this article was to evaluate how the global and relevant national instruments have been implemented in Nigeria and Indonesia to protect the rights of PWDs against discrimination and transform their fortunes. The article adopted library-based doctrinal and comparative research methods. This is in addition to employing some theoretical analytical models of disability to further explicate the perception or attitude of people towards PWDs in these countries. The findings of the article revealed that to certain extents, there have been some prospects and achievements recorded by reason of the extant normative frameworks guaranteeing the rights of PWDs in Nigeria and Indonesia; though the fundamental rights of PWDs have not been entirely fulfilled despite the optimistic clauses in the examined laws. The authors therefore, recommended that a lot more are still required to be done by relevant stakeholders in both countries under reference for the full realisation or accommodation of the protected rights of PWDs in Nigeria and Indonesia.

Caveats of mental healthcare act-2017: Recommendation for amendments.

Dear Sir, The rights-based framework in the current Mental Healthcare Act 2017 (MHA-2017) has received a wider acceptance in the minds of policymakers, patients, caregivers, judicial officers, and mental health professionals.[1,2] However, there appears to be a huge gap between acceptance in our minds and implementation at the ground level. Theoretical knowledge of MHA-2017 and the inability to translate it into practice in most of the general hospitals in the country due to systemic issues has created a dilemma in the minds of psychiatry residents. Therefore, it is necessary to have periodic sensitization programs for psychiatry trainees as well as psychiatrists to learn about changing scenarios in mental health legislation in the past five years.[3] The only discipline of Medicine that carries special significance beyond ethical practice involving beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence, and justice is psychiatry. This practice and the respect for the rights of a person to bring about optimum mental health outcomes have been legally guided. Forensic psychiatry has started to evolve as a subspecialty of psychiatry.[4] However, are psychiatrists in the country confident in dealing with legal issues evolving in the aftermath of MHA-2017 and imparting this practice to postgraduate trainees? Is clinical practice synchronizing with the legal framework? Are we dealing with the paradox of MHA-2017? Are budding psychiatrists across the country in dilemma with regard to MHA-2017? The response of different states is varied in terms of readiness of infrastructure, the constitution of the State Mental Health Authority (SMHA), the functioning of Mental Health Review Boards (MHRB), and overall dismal application of MHA-2017. Are there hasty translations of Western World rules on the infertile grounds of India? More than four years after passing the act, the current level of functional implementation does not appear to be a healthy indicator for the growth of mental health services in the country. This could provoke lawmakers to bring out the amendments to MHA-2017 to best suit the mental health services and practices of the country. In the absence of functional MHRBs, the practical caveats that may require amendments may include providing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to children and use of hospital beds for day-care procedures in psychiatry that include but are not limited to the somatic therapies in psychiatry such as administration of electroconvulsive therapy and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). It also includes short-term observation for a few hours in a general hospital following administration of long-acting injectables (LAI) antipsychotics and assessment for the appearance of acute side effects such as post-injection delirium sedation syndrome, and acute dystonia and oculogyric crisis. The other concerns requiring immediate attention for the functioning of MHRB include notifying advance directives, continuing admission under special circumstances, and provision of separate wards for children and women under psychiatry in a general hospital. These amendments could also add the role of MHRBs for adolescents involved in juvenile delinquency, child custody, termination of parental rights, and other related issues.[5] The protection of the rights of a person with mental illness should not be viewed as safeguarding oneself from the practice of psychiatry in the absence of full-fledged implementation of MHA-2017. This could be important for making a provision for the psychiatrist witnessing nonsexual or sexual boundary violation to notify the MHRB in advance, a point not placed in MHA-2017. The spirit of the MHA-2017 also does not clarify the role of the Consultation Liaison Psychiatrist and its effective practice in different departments under general hospital units. Further, the role of the psychiatrist in cases requiring cognizance of other specified acts such as the Prevention of Child Sexual Offense (POCSO) Act, Narcotics and Psychoactive Substances (NDPS) Act, The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, Right To Information (RTI) Act, etc. should also be viewed in parallel with MHA-2017. Authors emphasize the opportunity of teaching programs to highlight the gaps in training and implementation of MHA-2017.[6] The absence of functional implementation of MHA-2017 requires the churning of thoughts of stakeholders to amend a few provisions such as the formation of the transitional local hospital review board till formal MHRBs are functional.[7] This letter encourages clinicians and researchers to assess the compliance status of Indian states with MHA-2017 and to provide feasible solutions through systematic scientific research. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.

THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TO WORK: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

The issue of the right of persons with disabilities (PWD) to work through working age is guaranteed by law. As as a result, targeted measures, programs, and projects aimed at setting quotas for businesses, encouraging the self-employment of PWD, and rewarding employers have been implemented for some time in Mongolia. Implementation has been poor and this has led to violations of the rights of PWD to work. The main factors contributing to this are the lack of coordination, reconciliation, and management practices between line ministries ensur the implementation of the law and the public administration bodies that coordinate their activities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a coherent system to ensure the rights of PWDs to work in Mongolia, to implement better management methods, and to improve the effectiveness of ongoing activity. One of the decisive actions to address this is to study the regulatory mechanisms of developed countries and to practice advanced methods and technologies suitable for the conditions of Mongolia through benchmarking. In this article, we aim to develop recommendations for policymakers and implementers on how to create effective and equitable employment and work opportunities for PWDs. This involves the use of primary and secondary sources to provide meaningful answers through an evidence-based study. Survey data has been collected from relevant public administration employees and representatives of PWDs who are currently employed or wish to work, questionnaires, and interviews. The organizational system is compared with other countries, and the logical sequence of activities is analyzed. According to the survey results, the provisions of the legal documents for PWDs are not specified, other related legal documents are unconsolidated. There is no integrated database, and insufficient access to employment and career counseling services. Social psychology is not ready. It is concluded that the coordination and organizational backwardness of state organizations have a negative impact on the employment of PWDs. Accordingly, their rights are being violated.

Processes of assistive technology service delivery in Bangladesh, India and Nepal: a critical reflection

Purpose This paper critically reviews and reflects on the processes for providing Assistive Technology (AT) services to Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The aim is to investigate the AT service delivery systems in these countries and suggest improvements where weaknesses are identified. Materials and methods We carried out a descriptive qualitative exploratory study in Bangladesh, India and Nepal by conducting key informant interviews with policymakers (5), AT service providers (22) and mobility and hearing related AT service users (21). We used a directed content analysis approach guided by a seven-point AT service delivery process model to thematically analyse the existing processes for AT service delivery, from first contact through to follow-up and maintenance. Results AT service delivery processes are sub-optimal in all three countries, and improvements are needed. No common AT service delivery process was found, although there are common features. In general, it is easier for PWDs in India and Nepal to access AT than for those in Bangladesh, but all three countries are failing to live up to their commitments to uphold the human rights of PWDs. Conclusions Although good elements of AT service delivery processes can be identified, the systems in all three countries are fragmented and generally weak. A more holistic approach of looking at the process of AT service delivery, from first contact right through to follow-up and device maintenance, with a single door service delivery system, free of cost at the point of service is recommended in these countries. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Although we found significant weaknesses in AT delivery in all three countries, there are some good AT service delivery practices and opportunities for these countries to learn from one another. A systematic and stepwise approach to assessing current AT service delivery processes in the three countries – examining the delivery system as a whole, from initiation to repair and management – can help identify opportunities to improve the process for (prospective) AT users. A more coherent single door system of AT service delivery will increase the quality and efficiency of the fragmented AT service delivery practices in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

Specific Learning Disabilities in India: Current Situation and the Path Ahead

Students with specific learning disabilities (SpLD) need timely remedial education and provisions to continue their education within the main-stream. The Government of India has enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, and legitimized SpLD as a disability, nationally. This Act mandates screening of every school student for SpLD on completion of eight years of age, setting up of resource rooms for imparting remedial education in all schools, and provisions in examinations for all afflicted students. This Act authorizes that students with SpLD get benefit of reservations in higher education seats and government jobs. To ensure that this Act is implemented effectively, all stakeholders in the field of education and health will have to collaborate to set up sufficient number of assessment clinics, create sufficient number of special educators, and develop validated screening and assessment tools for diagnosing SpLD in all the regional languages of our country.

Unequal Representation of Persons with Disabling Mental Health Conditions in the Quota-Based Employment Reservations Notified by a Public Service Commission.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 of India intends to achieve greater representation of persons with benchmark disabilities (PwBD) at government establishments and reserve at least 4% of employment vacancies for PwBD. Of this 4%, 1% is reserved for PwBD with disabling mental health conditions (PwBD-MHC) and multiple disabilities, and 1% each for PwBD due to other disabling conditions like blindness, hearing, and locomotor impairment. We analyzed all the employment vacancy announcements (EVAs) made by the Indian union public service commission (UPSC) during the calendar year 2020 for their adherence to quota-based employment reservations (QBER). Eighteen vacancy advertisements made during the year 2020, for a total of 1370 posts under various departments, announced a total of 57 posts as reserved for PwBD under the QBER system, satisfying the minimum 4% quota. However, none of these posts is reserved for PwBD-MHC. Further, only 7 out of 1370 were described as suitable for PwBD-MHC, implying that 1363 are not suitable for them. The QBER system and the subdivision of quotas are well-intended to achieve the minimum representation of PwBD across all categories of jobs. However, the EVAs by UPSC in the year 2020 did not reserve any posts for PwBD-MHC and perhaps inadvertently excluded them from consideration for the majority of posts announced even under the unreserved category.

A Systematic Analysis of Islamic and Legal Perspectives on The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs)

Undoubtedly, it cannot be denied rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) preserved and protected under Islamic and Legal perspectives. Islam sees the disability as morally neutral and given equal preservation just like any other human being. Ensuring their inclusiveness can help achieve global goals, realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by, for, and with PWDs. Building on the principle of "leaving no one behind," the new Agenda emphasizes a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development for all (United Nations, 2016). This research examined the rights of PWDs according to Islamic and legal perspectives. This study uses the PRISMA methodology and two electronic databases from SCOPUS and HeinOnline systematically searched for papers or articles relating to Islam and disabilities, legal perspective, and the rights of PWDs over the period 2010 until 2020. The data collected was analyzed and recorded in the PRISMA flow chart. The result shows that 54 articles showed from the searching on both databases. However, only 28 journal articles were selected and analyzed after the final filter in the qualitative and quantitative synthesis. Ten interesting articles were chosen for discussion on the Islamic and legal perspectives on the rights of PWDs. Hopefully, this research will provide a useful overview and discussion of the systematic analysis of PWD rights from Islamic and legal perspectives using PRISMA methodology, as well as serve as a reference for other researchers and academics.

Disability studies and the law: In conversation with Professor (Dr) Nilika Mehrotra

The field of disability studies in India is fledgling, yet burgeoning. Professor (Dr) Nilika Mehrotra is an exemplary scholar from this field, who has played a pioneering role in situating the scholarship on persons with disabilities (PWDs) in a distinctly South Asian narrative. She has not only written extensively on the South Asian experience of disability but has brought together important scholarship by several academics in this area in a recent edited work. Her research on the intersectionality between gender and disability, as well as on the contribution of the state’s schemes on enhancing the rights of PWDs, has shaped the post-coloniality of the discipline in India. As an anthropologist, she has sought to place the experiences of the disabled at the heart of her theorisation, critiquing a top-down approach to representing disability. In this interview, she discusses the inherent interdisciplinarity of disability rights studies and the evolution of disability rights movements in India.

Caregiver’s perception of barriers to implementation of the 'Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016 in India'

ABSTRACT This study was planned to study caregiver’s perception of barriers to implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016 in India. An online cross-sectional survey was carried out among parents of children with disabilities. A prevalidated structured and semi-structured questionnaire was used. Results of structured items are summarized as mean (SD), frequencies and percentages. For open-ended questions, responses were analyzed by manual content analysis; results were presented in the form of a framework. From 316 responses, 44.8% of respondents availed disability certificate however utilization was largely limited to travel and educational settings. 82.2% of respondents were not aware of any of the national health schemes. Only 6.2% of children could engage in play activity at the playground. Accessibility, health issues and social stigma were the main barriers to recreation for children with disabilities. While 25.8% of children did not attend school at all, 58.1% of children attending normal school were facing difficulties due to lack of appropriate school infrastructure, transportation issues, and untrained teachers. Responses to open-ended questions were predominantly related to needs of homegrown research, better infrastructure, and trained teachers in schools, life security of child and development of national registry for better health information. The study highlights the importance of implementation of concrete strategies at every level of policy decisions to create more awareness regarding RPWD act in India.

The Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the legal capacity of persons with psychosocial disabilities

The first international document to be adopted in the field of human rights protection in the 21st century was the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. It imposes on its parties the obligation to create conditions that will enable persons with psychosocial disabilities to finally exercise their rights, will, and preferences on an equal basis with other members of society. The paper is divided into two parts: the first presents the new concept of legal capacity prescribed in Art. 12, in which the role of the state is seen through the commitments to implement faster and more efficient paradigm shifts in the approach to protecting the rights of these persons and the shift from substitute to supported decision-making. The second part deals with the interpretation and application of Art. 12 in the States Parties. Special attention will be paid to the challenges faced by states and how successfully they meet their obligations under the Convention through the elaboration of individual states’ reports on the implementation of Art. 12 and the views and recommendations of the Committee for the protection of persons with disabilities.

Admission of persons with disabilities into nursing and midwifery courses: Progress made by the Indian Nursing Council.

India's Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 (PWD Act, 1995) mandated a minimum enrollment reservation of 3% for persons with disability (PwDs) across all educational courses supported by government funding. Following this, the Indian Nursing Council (INC) issued regulations limiting such an enrollment quota to PwDs with lower limb locomotor disability ranging between 40%-50%. The Medical Council of India (MCI) also restricted admissions under the PwD category to PwDs with a lower limb locomotor disability to comply with the Act. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which replaced the PwD Act, 1995, raised the minimum reservation to 5% for all government-funded institutions of higher education and extended this reservation to PwDs under 21 different clinical conditions, rather than the seven conditions included under the PwD Act, 1995. Following the enactment of the RPwD Act, 2016, the MCI issued regulations that allowed PwDs with locomotor disability and those with a few other types of disabilities in the range of 40%-80%, to pursue graduate and postgraduate medical courses, while the INC has not made any changes. This article addresses the complexities of inclusion of PwDs in the healthcare workforce, offers suggestions for inclusive measures; and compares the INC admission regulation released in 2019 to the MCI 2019 admission guidelines for graduate and postgraduate medical courses.

Access to Justice for PWDs in Civil Proceedings before the Federal Courts of Ethiopia: The Law and Practice

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are among the most vulnerable groups to social, economic and political problems. Various UN General Assembly declarations on the rights of PWDS serve as soft laws for the protection of the rights of PWDs; and the international Bill of Rights can be applicable to their protection. In particular, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) contains provisions that recognize and protect various aspects of the rights of PWDS. The Convention clearly declares the rights of PWDs to access to justice both in civil and criminal proceedings. Ethiopia is a party to this Convention, and in effect, it has an international duty to implement, among other things, the right of access to justice for PWDs in judicial proceedings. This article examines access for PWDs in the Federal Courts in civil proceedings. It focuses on the legal and practical problems in the implementation of the right to access to justice in spite of attempts made by the government in this regard. Additional legislative and institutional improvements are thus necessary –to the extent possible– in order to realize the rights of access to justice for PWDs since substantive rights will remain meaningless in the absence of access to justice.

Sociodemographic and Clinical Profile of Patients Receiving Disability Certificates as per Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 for Psychiatric, Neurological, and Neurosurgical Disorders at Tertiary Care Centre

In India, Rights of persons with disabilities (RPWD) Act 2016 recognizes 21 disabilities including 12 disabilities which were not present in Person with disabilities Act 1995. Disability certificate (DC) is necessary to avail benefits under the RPWD Act 2016. To study socio-demographic and clinical profile of patients who were issued DC as per RPWD Act 2016 for psychiatric, neurological, and neurosurgical disorders. The study was carried out at National Institute for Mental Health and Neurological Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru. Socio-demographic and clinical details of patients who were issued DC for 2107 and 2018 were retrieved from hospital register, case files and e-hospital portal. A total of 2448 DC were issued in 2017 and 2018. Among DC issued, records of 2376 patients could be retrieved for the study. 95% of certificates were issued for patients from same state where our centre is located. Two thirds of patients were male. Most DC were issued for intellectual disability (51.9%) and mental illness (39%), chronic neurological conditions (5.1%), autism (1.1%), and muscular dystrophy (0.9%). Stroke (1.7%) was most common chronic neurological condition to be certified. Though the institute caters to more than 4 lakhs patients annually, only around 1200 DC are issued per year. There is considerable variation among units/consultant in same department who initiate disability certification. Patients, caregivers, and health professionals need to be sensitized about the disability certification process and available welfare benefits.