Friday, September 24, 2010

Summary of workshop on RTE and Disability

Purpose of the workshop: How to Ensure Education of children with disabilities in RTE ACT and how the rules should be for the effective implementation.

KARO and KCRO with support of World Vision India, SAMUHA, Child Right Trust and SAMA Foundation organised two days consultation on 22nd and 23rd September 2010 at THE BELL HOTEL, Bangalore.

52 delegates participated in this consultation, representing DPOs, Parents association and NGOs majority are from Bangalore and few from other districts.

Mr.I.M.Kachvi-President of KARO, Mr.SriRamappa-Country Director of Every Child-India, Mr.Vasudeva Sharma-Member of CPCR, Mr. Padmanaban-Programme Officer of SSA -Special Project and Ms. Manjula KARO member inaugurated the consultation by lighting the lamp. Mr.SriRamappa addressed the delegates on the theme “EDUCATION FOR LIVELIHOOD”.

Mr.Vasudeva Sharma, Member of Commission for Protection for Child Rights briefed about the history of Right to Education Act, Concept and provisions of Right to Education and how we can use effectively RTE Act in spite of flaws in the Act in the context of children with disabilities.

Mr.Padamanaban, Assistant Programme officer presented about the programmes of SSA in the context of Children with disabilities.

Ms. Manjula Nanjundaiah shared on theme of ACCEPTING DIVERSITY – INCLUSIVE, LEARNING FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT – UNESCO TOOL KIT.

Later group discussion on RTE ACT – what should be there in the RTE ACT if the education system should be inclusive and learning friendly.

DAY – 2
The following resource persons shared the specific educational needs on the respective category, Myths and Barriers in the education system and society and what should be there in the RTE ACT.

Mr.Anand from IAR India – Children with visually impaired

Ms.Usha from RV Integrated Scholl – Children with Speech and hearing

Mr.Venkatesh from KPAMRC – Children with Mentally Retardation

Ms.Padma from Spastic Society of Karnataka – Children with Cerebral palsy and learning disability

Ms.Ruby Singh – Children with Autism

Afternoon group discussion on RTE Rules – What should be there in the rules in order to ensure the quality education of children with disabilities?

Afternoon Mr.Rajanna, State Commissioner of Disabilities joined the consultation.

Mr.Ramanathan, State Secretary of KARO briefed to State Commissioner presented the purpose, issues identified and recommendation in front the State Commissioner and requested his action on this pathetic situation.

Mr. Rajanna, State Commissioner of Disabilities addressed the delegates on the negative attitude of Government officials in addressing the needs of persons with disabilities. He assured that Commissioner Office will also do the follow-up with Education department for the proper implementation.

Major Issue Identified
SSA totally lacks in the perspective and ACTION regarding Inclusive and learning friendly education system.
As of now SSA is majorly focusing on Medical rehabilitation like organising camp and providing aids and appliances instead of focusing on educational needs of children with disabilities.
In spite of having clear guild lines on barrier free school, the implementation are very poor not even disabled friendly toilet is available in the schools.
The present structure to implement the inclusive education is in adequate
SSA is not actively involving with the disability community and sector for the better implementation.

Action Plan
Before 27th Sep 2010, KARO should circulate the recommendation came up in the consultation to the disability community and sector for their opinions, suggestion and remarks.
Alliance or forum consisting DPOs, Parents association and NGOs will be initiated to advocate and lobby with Education Department to ensure the quality education for children with disabilities. The whole delegates suggested that KARO should lead this initiative.


Note: detail report and Recommendation came up for the Draft rules will be circulate on 27th September 2010.

RAM - KARO

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

KARO STATE LEVEL MEETING - 1st DAY update

KARO State level meeting - 1st day is over, The NEW Disability commissioner attended the meeting to share about his plans and how KARO can hlep disability commissioner office for the proper implementation of PWD ACT which is very soon going to be scraped. later we discussed about NEW LAW - The interesting thing is most of them expressed that one law will help a lot instead of two or three laws, because it will avoid confuse. KARO also strongly felt that Disabled people organisation and disability sector should have much more participation in the process. Six district representative (Mandya, Bangalore Rural, Urban, Chamarajnagar, Mysore) has come forward to translate the sub group report into kannada and later it will be circulated among all our district representative for their suggestion and comments. Tomarrow we going to discuss about Census, RTE and KARO's next quarter planning.

Friday, August 13, 2010

RAM's Critics on the best interest of persons with disabilities in india.

My Critics on the best interest of persons with disabilities in india.
India - The One and Only largest democracy in the World is in the process of developing a NEW ACT for people with disabilities in line with the spirit of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with the meager participation from people with Disabilities. Out of around 28 members in the drafting committee only 6 are people with disabilties, the rest are Government people and few organisations who always praise government for everything even if disabled suffer and very very few raise voice for the issues of disabled persons with passion. The greatest beauty of this meeting is, for whom the ACT is developing, They were kept as silent spectator in the name of obeserver. The committee least bothered to take opinion,sugesstion or comments officially. I am saying the torture suffered by me and 20 disabled people in the name of observer is one of the worst moment in my life. They are speaking and deciding about ME and my community but we are forced to be mute spectator.I request the Government and very much particularly NGOs please here afterwards dont use this quote " NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US" if we really not able to practice it.
My suggestions for effective funciton of committee.
1. Chairperson should be target orientened and dynamic in leading the group. for everything the chairperson should not be at the mercy of Government. Chairperson should strongly communicate to Government and sub group not compromising.
2. more space for the young disabled people to participate - this act should be able to address the issues of disabled people another 15 to 20 years.
3. Disabled community will not forgive the drafting committee member if they try to divide the disability community through 2 or 3 acts " WE ARE ONE AND WE WANT ONE COMPREHENSIVE ACT"
4. Ensuring all the appropriate member attending the meeting at right time.
5.SUB GROUP MEMBER SHOULD WORK HARD BY TAKING MAJORITY OF THE OPINIONS NOT MERELY INFLUENCING THEIR THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCE. 6.OBSERVER SHOULD ALSO GET 5 OR 10 MINUTES TO GIVE COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS, CRITICS OR TO GET CLARIFICATION.
7. ENSURE QUALITY OF ACT DONT JUST RUSH
8. ORGANISING SENSITIZATION OR AWARENESS TO THE COMMITTE MEMBERS ON PROGRESSIVE THINKING.
9. MAKE SURE FUND SHOULD BE CONSTRAINTS
10. ENCOURAGE GOVERNMENT REPRESENATATIVES TO PARTICIPATE.
11. FINALLY AND VERY STRONGLY I AM SAYING THE DISABLED PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE COMMITTE SHOULD SPEAK STRONGLY ON RIGHTS BASED. IF THE DRAFT IS NOT UPTO THE MARK THE DISABLED PEOPLE IN THE COMMITTE WILL BE THE PRIMARY RESPONSIBLE BECAUSE DRG FOUGHT A LOT FOR THE INCLUSIONS OF PWDS.
DONT TAKE THIS MESSAGE AS EMOTION OUTBURST, PLEASE THINK OVER IT, WE HAVE SUFFERED NEARLY 15 YEARS DUE TO THE SEVERE LIMITATION IN 1995 ACT. NOW IS DEATH OR LIFE FOR US.
RAM

Sunday, July 25, 2010

People with disabilities got LATHI CHARGE instead of Job. The Whole Credit goes to the Organisers
KARO – Karnataka Angavikalara Rajya Okkuta, appreciates the initiative taken by the Government and NGOs to create job opportunities and skill development. According to the Labour Commissioner, Government of Karnataka, this initiative was to atleast to provide 1000 jobs to Bangalore based persons with disability. This job fair was organised on 17 & 18th July 2010 at Dharmaram college Campus, Hosur Road, Bangalore. Unfortunately the poor planning and lack of co-ordination has resulted this great initiative a total failure. This failure was done at the cost of self-esteem of people with disability. On the 17th persons with disability suffered a lot due to lack of basic facilities. Problems faced…. 1. No proper guidance / counselling facilities which led people with disability to utter confusion and distress. 2. To reach the job fair location disabled were force to crawl or walk 2 kms from the entrance of the site. No alternate support system was provided. 3. Inaccessible toilets and no drinking water. Especially for people who travelled as far from Gulbarga, Raichur, Hubli, and so on. 4. Information and support in Sign and Braille language was not available. 5. With the known fact of 1000 employment opportunities would be made available through this fair, invitations were sent all over the state without proper guidance. 6. Counsellors were insensitive while giving their remarks like will you wash the car, clean the toilets, that is the job you are eligible for etc.. were very insulting to any persons indeed. The list will go on, which were also reflected in leading news papers. Due to these problems and irresponsible attitude from the organiser, disabled people were forced to go for protest. Inspite of having protest for about two hours, organisers didn’t turn up to solve the problem. When the police manhandled Mr.Nagendra who is a spinal cord injured person and Secretary for Network of persons with spinal cord injury, which was initiated by Association of People with Disability – APD, none of the mute spectators from APD went to help him. Mr.Nandish, KARO member and SAMA Foundation staff, who too has disability, went to rescue Mr.Nagendra was beaten by police and was arrested and got released at 8 PM which is also recorded in the police station. The mute spectators which included self-crowned saviours in the field of disability - Mr.Basavaraj, CEO, APD and Mr. Gopinath, Director, Programmes were careless and cynically laughing by looking at the plight of Nagendra and Nandish. On that same evening I got a call from Mr. Basaiah and Mr.Janardhan, staff of APD, that APD will organise a meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue. I visited the spot to look at the accessibility issues and to discuss with organisers about the happenings. But Mr.Basavaraj, CEO, Association of People with Disability, misguided the Police that I was here to create trouble as usual Mr. Basavaraj well known in the sector for his masculinity fled the scene. Upon the misguidance by Basavaraj, Mr.Janardhan, Inspector of Police, who was at the spot behaved in a very worst and inhumanly. He used fowl language, also denoting that people from networks are here to create trouble and he knows how to handle them and threatened to send me to hospital if I do not quit the place. I did not get a chance to express my situation. This very clearly shows that APD as an organisation is taking advocacy issue only to get funds from the donors not to empower the voice of voiceless. It is very disgusting that this is happening from an esteem organisation which was founded by Ms. Hema madam, whom we all consider as mother. We have decided to organise press meet and candle light vigil against the atrocities of Mr.Janardhan Inspector of Police and against the cheating by APD Directors, indeed they claim they are for the Rights of persons with disabilities.
We request your solidarity and be part….
With regards
G.RAMANATHANState Secretary

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Irregularities in SSA Funds

(New Delhi) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the government’s flagship programme working towards universalisation of elementary education, is mired in trouble with the CAG reporting financial irregularities, under-utilisation of funds, underachievement of targets and funds being released to non-existent schools. A CAG report found that crucial ingredients of SSA - textbooks, classrooms, teachers and learning equipment - were missing or seriously lacking. ‘‘There was substantial under-funding as the funds made available were short of requirement approved by the Project Approval Board. Underprovisioning ranged from 43% to 57% during 2001-02 to 2004-05,’’ the CAG report said. It added that four years after implementation of SSA and utilisation of almost 86% of funds available with the implementing agencies, targets have not been met. First the financial irregularity. CAG found that funds were diverted to activities/- schemes beyond the scope of SSA. In the districts test checked by audit in 11 states - Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal - Rs 99.88 crore was spent on items not permitted under SSA. Besides, in 14 states and UTs, financial irregularities of Rs 472.51 crore were noticed. In Bihar, Rs 15.80 crore was diverted to meet the expenditure on salary of teachers, mid-day meal scheme and purchase of utensils while in Himachal Pradesh, Rs 24 lakh was spent on LPG connections for running mid-day meal scheme kitchens. In Gujarat, while Rs 22.88 crore was diverted to non-SSA programmes, Rs 4 lakh was spent on bhoomipujan of Gujarat Council of Education Research and Training Centre. UP spent Rs 52 lakh towards purchase of utensils for 2,576 primary schools. Other irregularities include actions showing something as expenditure though the amount was advanced to other agencies.

About KARO

Throughout the centuries we have designed our societies considering persons with disabilities as not existing , and taking for granted that all human beings can see, hear, walk , understand and react quickly to signals from the world around them. . This lack of empathy allowed our society an open channel to proceed with the exclusion of millions of people with disabilities
- Bengt Lindqvist

KARO - A Movement by and for People with Disability
We aim at “A strong, vibrant, proactive and mass based state organisation of Disabled People; federated with Advocacy Groups at village level; and federated at block, district, and state level. All Disabled People of this state directly or indirectly will be the part of this Movement. This will strive for addressing the issues and concerns of Disabled People through out the state. This is not a non-Governmental organisation but functions as a people’s movement. The movement will enable people with disabilities to access their legitimate rights and entitlements Rights from disability certificate to all the facilities of the state for which they are entitled. This will also make sincere and serious efforts to address the basic and fundamental issues such as discrimination, exclusion, injustice, inequalities and denial of rights and opportunities of people with disabilities simultaneously. We will combat against attitudinal, institutional and environmental barriers which potentially prevent people with disabilities to exercise their rights and discharge their duties with dignity. Our struggle is to end discrimination, exclusion, exploitation, injustice, inequalities and up root the barriers in the society. Enabling people with disabilities to access their rightful, lawful, equal, just and legit met share and position in the society is the primary and ultimate goal.


2. Vision:
We envision an “inclusive, equal, just and barrier free society where every disabled person plays Her/His role in far with fellow citizens”

3. Mission:
Our mission is to “Enable people with disabilities to empower them selves to organize and lead their struggle for equity and justice”.

4. Aims and Objectives:
A. Facilitating enabling conditions for people with disabilities to organize.

B. Creating new awakening among people with disabilities about their rights and entitlements.

C. Enabling people with disabilities to access their rights and entitlements.

D. Uprooting the discrimination, exclusion, injustice, inequality and exploitation against people with disabilities in all its forms and manifestations.


E. Ensuring effective and meaningful participation of people with disabilities in the entire decision making, policy making process concerning them.

F. Enabling people with disabilities to contest elections and get elected to the decision making bodies and institutions to raise their voice and concerns.

G. Ensuring effective and meaningful participation and inclusion of people with disabilities in all spheres of life at all levels.

H. Ensuring adequate and appropriate representation of people with disabilities in all the processes, actions and institutions.

5. Our Stand:

A. Disability is a diversity of human society.

B. Disability is not mere a rehabilitation issue but a development and human rights issue.

C. We are most capable to understand, discuss, debate, voice and address our needs and concerns very effectively than anybody else on the earth.

D. Nothing about us with out us.

E. Poverty is both a cause and consequence of disability and our primary goal is to end poverty of people with disabilities.

F. Promoting dignity, individuality, integrity, self determination and autonomy of people with disabilities is our prime responsibility and we are committed to protect it at any cost.

G. Our struggle is to access our legitimate and equal share and position in the society.

H. We are most capable enough to lead our struggle for equity and justice.

I. Issue of an Individual with disability is our issue and any issue of the movement becomes the issue of an individual.


6. Values:

We the integral part of this movement uphold and, internalize, follow and practice following values as the values of our movement;

A. Transparency; All the actions, decisions, processes, activities, documents and programmes are transparent and any citizens of this country can access them. There is nothing hidden and we are open for constructive criticism and change.

B. Accountability: Our primary accountability is to people with disabilities regardless of their membership status with the movement. All the financial documents, bills and vouchers will be kept open and any citizen of this country can access them.

C. Democracy: Our struggle is based on the strong foundation of democratic values and principles. We ensure democratic processes in all our actions, decision making processes, elections, selections and any other processes.

D. Gender equity and justice: All our actions and process will be gender sensitive and we are committed to promote gender equity and justice at all levels and all spheres of the struggle. Gender insensitivity and injustice will not be tolerated.

E. Secular: We are a secular movement and do not tolerate discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, creed, colour, race, ethnicity, language and place of birth in the country.

F. Apolitical: We are a non-political party group and do not associate or appealiate with any political parties. We maintain equal distance from all the political parties of the country.

G. Mutual respect for human rights: We uphold and advocate the values and principles of human rights and recognize the rights of others. We respect the rights of our fellow citizens and do not cause violation.

H. Honesty and Downward accountability: Our primary accountability is to all people with disabilities and we are committed to be accountable and answerable for them at any point of time and place.

I. Courage of conviction: We are committed to resist, protest, condemn, voice and discard; discrimination, exclusion, injustice, exploitation and inequalities very strongly and effectively with clear and loud words in all forms and manifestations at all levels, aspects, against any position, relationship or powerful.

13. Activities:

a. Facilitating regular and timely meetings.

b. Discussing issues and addressing them effectively.

c. Enabling people with disabilities to access medical/disability certificate or ID card.

d. Enabling people with disabilities to access their entitlements such, bus pass, train concession, pension, scholarship, loans, vocational training, assistance for education, higher and professional education, making public buildings, places and transport barrier free, addressing the cases of discrimination, exclusion and injustice.

e. Enabling people with disabilities to access schemes, programmes, concessions, relaxations and any other entitlements from the state or voluntary agencies.

f. Protesting and condemning the acts of discrimination, exclusion and injustice against people with disabilities with clear and loud voice and action.

g. Ensuring effective, timely and appropriate utilization of resources/funds allocated for people with disabilities both in state and voluntary sector.

h. Ensuring all the departments, ministries, institutions, organizations, agencies, bodies, officials, voluntary agencies work effectively and discharge their functions efficiently.

i. Enabling people with disabilities to contest in local body elections or the elections of decision making bodies in order to get them elected so that they can effectively raise their voice and concerns in the decision making process.

j. Filling petitions and litigations in the court against the discriminatory and exclusionary processes with people with disabilities.

k. Enabling people with disabilities to lead married life.

l. Enabling people with disabilities to access adequate and appropriate forms of recreational facilities.

m. Enabling people with disabilities to access appropriate and adequate medical facilities such as surgery, assistive devises, therapy, medication and any other medical assistance.

n. Enabling children and adult with disabilities to access appropriate and most suitable form of education.

o. Enabling people with disabilities to access their due share, various reservation quotas in education, employment and other benefits of the state

Contact Address
G.Ramanathan
State Secretary
Karnataka Rajya Angavikalara Okkuta
No. 71 2nd Cross Bhasyamnagar Srirampuram
Bangalore 560 021
Ph- 080 23470327
Mobile - 9480112582 / 9916909713