For very long, policy perspectives on disability have been characterised by what is called the 'charity approach’. The aspiration in Article 41 is an example. “The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the Right to Work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other case of undeserved want.” Granted that the Supreme Court has said more than once that a statute needs to be interpreted in a manner that would advance the objective of Article 41, the disabled still did not have a right to work. However, more recent efforts have attempted to take the ‘human rights approach’, and the United Nations Convention on Persons with Disability is the supreme example. This is the first of a two-part focus on the laws that can be used by the disabled and groups working with disability. We look at the existing legislative framework in India, and the perspectives that have determined such an approach. From there, we move on to the impact created by international measures taken at the UN and other levels. Of particular significance is the impact that the UN Convention will have on domestic laws in India. In the next edition, we will take a look at how the judiciary has approached the issue so far, in India as well as in the neighbourhood. In an increasingly privatised economy, the role of the private sector in ensuring equality of opportunity will be another focal point.

- Rights First Editorial Team

Human rights violations: still no effective remedy

The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 had the avowed object of establishing Human Rights Courts at the district level, apart from establishing Human Rights Commissions at the national and state level. But fourteen years later, not a single case has been reported as having come up before any of these Human Rights Courts, N Chandrashekharayya writes.
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