The Hindu : New Delhi News : Policy on caregivers for disabled needed urgently

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Monday, Jul 07, 2008
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New Delhi

Policy on caregivers for disabled needed urgently

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

In the absence of professional helps, such persons are unable to lead a life of dignity and comfort

NEW DELHI: With India recently signing the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPRD) and ratifying the same, a large number of people with disabilities in the country are now hoping that it would also expeditiously move towards coming out with a clear cut policy on caregivers as despite the national policy statement of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment mentioning about social security, this issue remains vague.

Founder president of non-government organisation Sanjivini, Sanjeev Sachdeva is of the view that there is an urgent need to address this issue of caregivers as in the absence of these professional helps, many persons with disabilities and the elderly are unable to lead a life of dignity and comfort. Stating that such people also have a right to “make their lives meaningful and to contribute to the society”, he said, adding that the issue of physical assistance and the personal care support still remains an area of concern which has not yet received due attention and is a matter of urgent importance.

Mr. Sachdeva said recently his organisation had forwarded to the Ministry a list of 25 persons who had applied for caregivers and already another 25 applications have landed seeking such professional support.

“Often an individual with disability is considered in isolation but in a realistic sense, it affects the entire family around the person and should therefore be considered as the family disability,” said Mr Sachdeva, adding that many a times parents, sons, daughters and siblings of such persons with disabilities are compelled to give up their professional careers and this leads to underutilisation of national resource.

Mr. Sachdeva insists that there is a need to give this entire issue a fresh look. “The National Trust for Persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities takes up the issue of the personal carers but it is limited to only these four disabilities mentioned in the National Trust Act. There are still a sizeable number of people with muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophies, neuro-muscular disorders, spinal injury, mental illness, hemophilia, and many others who need personal care and physical assistance in daily life. Unfortunately no institutional mechanism exists for the above mentioned disabilities,” he added.

With the UN convention that became an international law on May 3, 2008, stating that person with disabilities should have “access to a range of in-home residential and other community support services including personal assistance necessary to support and inclusion into the community and to prevent isolation and segregation from the community,” he hoped that India would now also work in this direction.

Mr. Sachdeva said the Government should come out with a policy on this. “Various organisations including Samarthayam and Sanjivini have represented to the Government to come out with a scheme through which pool of trained caregivers can be created and employed with persons with disabilities. There is no educational level required; they could simply be trained for 10 days on manual handling, morality and ethics.”

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