NEW DELHI: The Disabled Rights Group has demanded a separate Ministry to look into the demands of the physically challenged.

If that is not possible immediately, the sector should be shifted from the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry to the Human Resource Development Ministry, Javed Abidi, convener, DRG, told presspersons here on Tuesday.

Even almost 10 years since the enactment of the Disability Act, 1995, the major demands of barrier-free access, education and employment for persons with disabilities remain on paper, Mr. Abidi said.

The Social Justice Ministry was ignoring the rights of the disabled and, instead, concentrating on issues involving the Scheduled Castes and minorities, who form a major vote bank.

"The Minister, Meira Kumar, is invariably a prisoner of vote bank politics, as a result of which her first priority concerns the Scheduled Castes followed by the minorities and finally the disabled, if at all any. In fact, during Maneka Gandhi's tenure, we saw that issues concerning animals preceded the subject of disability," he said. Also, there was no implementation of the Disability Act and the National Policy on Disability announced last month was a watered-down version of the decade-old law.

A few months ago, when Ms. Kumar demanded reservation for the Scheduled Castes in the private sector, she forgot all about the disabled, Mr. Abidi said.

The Disability Act has mandated incentives for the private sector for encouraging the employment of disabled people but there has been no action, which proves that disability figures nowhere on the Ministry's agenda.

To cap it all, the three apex institutions for the disabled — Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities, the Rehabilitation Council of India and the National Trust — were practically headless. "The Minister, without any reason, abolished the National Disability Commission, which was announced on August 15, 2003."

On the issue of access, the authorities are in a denial mode despite the consistent demands of members of the disability sector that buildings, infrastructure and facilities be made barrier-free, he said and cited examples of the "extent of insensitivity."

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