LAWS PERTAINING TO REHABILITATION IN INDIA

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extra ordinary destiny”-C.S. Lewis

Introduction

Rehabilitation is a process of helping a person restore lost skills and regain maximum
self-sufficiency, who has suffered an illness or injury . According to World Health
Organization, rehabilitation is “a set of measures that assist individuals who
experience, or are likely to experience, disability to achieve and maintain optimal
functioning in interaction with their environments”.

Disability is defined as the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by the way

how a society is organized that takes little or no consideration of people who have
physical, sensory or mental impairments. As a result such people are exempted from
participating fully on equal terms in mainstream society.

Need for Rehabilitation Law In India

As per estimate of WHO, ten percent of the world’s population suffers from one or
other disabilities and almost one fifth of the disabled person of the world lives in India.
Reports stated that nearly 5% of population in India are affected with impairment or
disability (Census,2001). This is due to the lack of awareness of people regarding the
various laws and treatment plans available for differently-abled.

There are various measures taken by Government of India since then to provide
support to disabled people, provide them with legal facilities, public transport
facilities, medical facilities and also various minute supports that can help an
individual to feel one among the member of the society to cope with it.

“Healing doesn’t mean the damage no longer existed, it means the damage no
longer control our lives”

According to Collins English dictionary, Laws are defined as “the system of rules
which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its
members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties”.
People with disability can seek legal rehabilitation services. India has registered
several societies for providing rehabilitation professionals to help the person cope
with disability. In 1986, the Rehabilitation Council of India(RCI) was set up as a
registered society. On September,1992 the RCI Act was enacted by Parliament and it
became a Statutory Body on 22 June 1993.The Act was amended by Parliament in
2000 to make it more broad based.The mandate was to regulate and also prescribes
punitive action against unqualified persons delivering services to persons with
disability. And also to standardize and to maintain a Central Rehabilitation Register of
all qualified professionals and personnel working in the field of Rehabilitation and
Special Education (RCI, 1992)

Laws and Acts

There are both government and non-government organizations available for providing
support to the differently abled individuals in all possible areas of human functioning
like psychological, social and physical and even legal affairs.

Legal Disability

Legal disability is the absence of legal capacity in doing certain acts or enjoying
certain legal rights. It is divided into two classes- 1. absolute, it wholly disables the
person, like out-law, excommunication, attainder and acts by statutory bodies or
corporation in excess of their statutory powers; 2. partial as infancy, lunacy,
drunkenness etc.

Civil Disability

The condition of a person who has had a legal right privilege revoked as a result of a
criminal conviction. This involves physical disabilities that are of different kinds like
blindness, leprosy cured persons, hearing impairment, loco-motor disability, mental
illness and mental retardation, autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.

Especially the poor suffers than the rich in India. Poverty may cause disability and
also, disability may cause poverty. The Preamble of the Constitution embodies the
concept of social justice and equality of status and opportunity to all the people of
India , therefore The Constitution of India has guaranteed full protection to the rights
of disabled people.

 Article 14 & 16 of the Constitution guarantee equality of opportunity to all citizen

of India.

 Article 38 of the Constitution requires the State to promote the welfare of the
people by securing a social order in which social, economic and political justice
can inform to all institutions of national life and the State is required to make
efforts to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities amongst
individuals

Traffic accidents,
Hereditary problem,
employment injury,
lack of proper care at
occupational
the time of
diseases, illness,
pregnancy and
environment
childbirth, lack of
pollution physical
consciousness,
torture, sport
malnutrition
accidents

Malfunction, Mental and nervous

malformation or disorders, use of certain
disfigurement of a chemicals, drugs, alcohol,
part of the body at smoking, high blood
Causal pressure, old age, obesity
the time of birth
Factors of
Disability

Persons With Disability Act

The Persons with Disabilities provides Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and
Full Participation(Act, 1995 ). The Acts defines the responsibilities of the Central and
State government with regard to the services for disabled persons. Provisions have
been made in this Act for the rights of disabled persons,

 Prevention of disabilities

 Protection of rights

 Provision of medical care

 Education and training

 Employment

 Rehabilitation

National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental
Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act

The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental
Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 was established for the welfare of
people with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities. This
Act helps for the care and protection of persons with these disabilities in the event of
death of their parents, procedures of appointment of guardians and trustees for
persons who wants such protection and to provide need-based services in times of
crisis to the families of the disabled.

The Mental Health Act, 1987

It was enacted to regulate admissions to psychiatric hospitals psychiatric nursing

homes of mentally ill-persons who do not have sufficient understanding to seek
treatment on a voluntary basis and to protect the rights of such persons while being
detained, to protect society from the presence of mentally ill persons who have
become or might become a danger or nuisance to others, to protect citizens from
being detained in psychiatric hospitals or nursing homes without sufficient cause, to
regulate responsibility for maintenance charges of mentally ill persons who are
admitted in psychiatrist hospitals or nursing homes, to provide facilities for
determining guardianship or custody of mentally ill-persons who are incapable of
managing their own affairs, to provide for the establishment of Central Authority and
State Authorities for mental health services, to regulate the power of the Govt. for
establishing, licensing & controlling psychiatric nursing homes for mentally persons
and to provide for legal aid to mentally ill-persons at state expense in certain cases.

The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992

The main objective to pass this act was to regulate the man power development
programmes in the field of education of persons with special needs and to regulate the
training policies and programme in the field of rehabilitation of people with
disabilities, to standardize training courses for rehabilitation professionals, to
recognize institutions/universities running degree/diploma/certificate courses in the
field of rehabilitation of the disabled and to recognize and equalize foreign
degree/diploma/certificate courses.The RCI Act has amended in 2000 to entrust the
additional responsibility of promoting research in rehabilitation and special education.

The National Policy on Education 1986

The National Policy on Education 1986 is implemented to achieve the goal of

providing education to all including the disabled and to integrate the physically and
mentally handicapped as one society as equal individuals to prepare them for normal
growth and to enable them to face life with courage and confidence.

Conclusion

References
 Persons with Disabilities- Rights, Rehabilitation and Resource Development
(2003). Retrived from:
http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l442-Persons-with-Disabilities.html

International Conference on Human Resource Development in the Area of

Disability Rehabilitation. 25th and 26th April 2005. Ministry of Social Justice &
Empowerment Government of India and Rehabilitation Council of India. Kanishka
Publishers, Distributors. p. 249

Kumar, r. (2019). Legal rights of the disabled in India — Vikaspedia. [online]

Vikaspedia.in. Available at:
http://vikaspedia.in/education/parents-corner/guidelines-for-parents-of-children-with-
disabilities/legal-rights-of-the-disabled-in-india

Sarkar, P. (2016). Persons with Disabilities- Rights, Rehabilitation and Resource

Development. [online] Legalserviceindia.com. Available at:
http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l442-Persons-with-Disabilities.html
[Accessed 28 Mar. 2019]