The National Policy for Children, 2013 aims to protect and encourage the rights of the children to survival, health, nutrition, education, development, protection and participation. The policy, as notified, is a paradigm shift from the more common patronizing approach to children with disabilities seen in the mainstream. Further it has incorporated major inputs of various organizations regarding the needs of children with disabilities.
The salient features of the children’s policy include the following:
- It focuses on the prevention of disabilities. Since it has been estimated that a large percentage of disabilities in India are preventable, so it is expected that with early interventions, further disabilities could be treated and managed, after which rehabilitation and social support measures need to be provided.
- It recognizes that, at times, children with disabilities are not given access to education and may be in need of additional care and protection. They are included in a larger group of vulnerable children who need to be tracked and have access to their right to education.
- It highlights the need for schools to be inclusive and for the availability of trained teachers and special educators, appropriate pedagogy and education material, barrier-free access for mobility, functional toilets and co-curricular activities towards the development of a child’s fullest potential and autonomy, as well as dignity and self-worth.
- It specifically states that the views of children with disabilities must be promoted and strengthened within the family, community, schools and institutions, different levels of governance, as well as in judicial and administrative proceedings concerning them.
- It is the first policy document in India that specifically highlights “disability” as a ground for discrimination that must be countered.
Though some suggestions of the civil society did not make it to the final draft, still, these provisions are a good reflection of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which emphasizes the rights of children with disabilities to express their views freely on all matters affecting them, on an equal basis with other children.
Though it is yet to be seen how this translates into real practice, still it gives the hope that children in our country can look forward to a future without discrimination.