The Tamil Nadu government has temporarily withdrawn its recent order announcing the reconstituted welfare board for persons with disabilities.
Minister for Social Welfare and Women Rights Geetha Jeevan made the announcement on Sunday.
The order had said the board, chaired by the Chief Minister, would have four official members, including him, one specialist or expert in the field of disability and six representatives of NGOs and associations.
In 2007, the DMK government had constituted the board.
When the order was released a few days ago, disability rights activists expressed concerns. “The board remained largely non-functional for the last few years and we were hoping that it would be reconstituted to help disabled persons by the new government. However, the government order had left most of us worried whether issues of persons with disabilities would be effectively represented, especially since there were some non-official members, who are government servants involved in social activities,” said S. Namburajan, State general secretary, the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers.
Welcoming the decision to withdraw the order, T.M.N. Deepak Nathan, founder-president of the December 3 Movement, said the focus should be on including representatives of the rights-based and community-based organisations. “These are persons who have been working on, and are aware of, the issues faced by persons with disabilities at the grassroots and can effectively represent the same,” he said.
C. Govindakrishnan, founder, Nethrodaya, said the initial proposal to reconstitute the board, as outlined in the G.O., lacked representation of 21 categories of disabilities, as outlined in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. No representatives were named from different districts. “We are thankful to the Chief Minister for his timely intervention…,” he added.