The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Call for change in attitude towards the challenged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 27, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Call for change in attitude towards the challenged

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA, MARCH 26. Expressing concern over the denial of equal rights to the physically and mentally challenged, the Supreme Court Judge, Arijit Pasayat, has stressed the need for a change of attitude in understanding them to enable them to become participants in day-to-day life.

"A tremendous amount of informal support by families and friends of the challenged is necessary and it would go a long way in creating a caring society to change the quality of life of the people with disabilities," he said.

Delivering the Metlapalli Koteswara Rao Pantulu Law lecture at a symposium on human rights organised by the Rotary Club of Vijayawada East on Saturday, Justice Pasayat said though the march towards integration and participation started many years ago, the results were not encouraging.

Wrong approach

The attitude of society towards a challenged person had been lopsided and a challenged person was hitherto an object not the subject of action. "Our policies, unfortunately, have a substantial element of protection and charity and that is where we have gone wrong," he said.

According to him, despite the enactment of laws like the Persons With Disabilities Act, the status of the challenged did not really improve because the emphasis of the policy remained individualised rather than generalised. "Legislation alone cannot radically change the fabric of the society in a short span of time. Society must rise to the occasion. There has to be a change of attitude in understanding and not showing pity towards disabled," he said.

Society's mindset

The Supreme Court judge also expressed concern over the mindset of society and said those who were required to implement the legislation did not change resulting in the challenged continuing to face obstacles. "We cannot equalise opportunities for physically and mentally challenged people without removing the obstacles in their way.

If one remembers what happened in Erwadi mental asylum of Tamil Nadu one gets a feeling that the provisions of various statutes have become hollow words with no live link with reality," he said.

Rehabilitation

Stressing the need for `developmental rehabilitation' of the challenged, Justice Pasayat said they should receive training, technical aids and different support services to increase their capacity to deal with various challenges in life.

The symposium was attended by Markandey Katju, Chief Justice of the High Court of Madras and the Andhra Pradesh High Court judges, N.V. Ramana, Bilal Nazki, G. Raghuram and J. Chalameswar.

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