How Budget 2023 'neglected and condemned' persons with disabilities

Representational image. (Photo: Jakub Pabis via Unsplash)

Persons with disabilities and disability rights activists are unhappy yet again. National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) released a press statement which states that despite the rhetoric of the government of "Inclusive India" with Inclusive Development right at the top of the government's seven-priority "Saptarishi" approach, the persons with disabilities have been left by the wayside.

NPRD is a cross-disability disabled-people's organisation, with membership-based affiliates in various states, which takes up issues for advocacy and policy intervention, and fights for disabled rights. The NPRD statement further stated that in comparison to the previous year, there is "merely 1 per cent increase" while "it must be underlined that the amount allotted for 2022-23 remained underutilised by Rs 196 crore."

The allocations for the scheme for implementation of the (Rights of) Persons with Disabilities Act have been severely reduced by Rs 90 crore, from Rs 240.39 (BE) last year to Rs 150 crore this year.

“It is the woefully inadequate allocation that is mainly responsible for the failure in implementing the provisions of accessibility within five years as mandated by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD) Act, 2016.

“Sadly, even the support for important autonomous bodies established by Acts of Parliament that cater to persons with disabilities, like the National Trust and the Rehabilitation Council of India, remains the same,” the NPRD said.

It also criticised the government’s move to remove the income criteria in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana for persons with disabilities.

The allocations for the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme remain unchanged at Rs 290 crore as compared to last year.

“The government has refused to enhance both the amount and the coverage of the pension. The amount has remained unchanged at Rs 300 for more than a decade and covers a mere 3.8 per cent of the disabled population identified by the 2011 census.

“One has to have a disability of 80 percent and above and has to fall under the BPL category to avail the benefit of this scheme,” it said.

Allocation to MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), it said, "has been further cut by Rs 13,000 crore this year. Compared to 2021-22, MGNREGS allocation have been reduced by nearly Rs 40,000 crore (it was reduced by Rs 25,000 crore last year)." This comes at a time when the MGNREGS has benefitted during the pandemic, and at times of job losses, especially for the marginal workers and migrant labourers, and among the disabled persons in rural areas.

Cuts in the allocations for PM Poshan Yojana, ICDS programmes and food subsidies will severely impact the disabled persons as well.

It further noted, "In the first budget of the Amrit Kaal, except for the promise to launch a mission to eliminate sickle cell anaemia (recognised as a disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act) by 2024 and screen over 7 crore people in tribal areas" and "one casual reference to divyangjan" in FM Nirmala Sitharaman's 2023-24 Union Budget speech, nothing has been done for this section of people.

"When a person lives with a disability, they don't suffer alone, their families, friends, relatives, whoever they interact with bear the consequences, too," said a person with disabilities, adding that disability isn't an individual's problem, it is a social, societal, communal, national and global issue.

The fault lies in India being a welfare state and a welfarist approach, as defined by an NCBI paper, sees "disability as a harmful state that results from the interaction between a person's biology and psychology and his or her surrounding environment," according to a 2011 paper Disability: a welfarist approach authored by Julian Savulescu and Guy Kahane

How this compares with the previous year

In Budget 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced tax relief for people with disabilities. The parent or guardian of a differently-abled person could take an insurance scheme for such a person. “The present law provides for a deduction to the parent or guardian only if the lump-sum payment or annuity is available to the differently-abled person on the death of the subscriber, i.e. parent or guardian,” the minister said in her 2022-23 Union Budget speech and proposed to allow the payment of annuity and lump sum amount to the differently-abled dependent during the lifetime of parent/guardian attaining the age of 60 years.

How this compares with pre-budget expectations

In the Budget of 2021-22, the allocation for DePwD was reduced to Rs 1,171.76 crore from Rs 1,325.39 crore. Even the Budget for 2022-23 did not have much for persons with disabilities.

The price of disability 

The Times of India reported last month that according to researchers at University of Melbourne used the Standard of Living approach to a conclude that a disabled member in the family increases the income required for a household to achieve the same standard of living by 17 per cent and the poverty rates among such households increases from 18 per cent to 34 per cent. The financial blow adds insult to injury, as it is public infrastructure, among other things, are highly inaccessible in India.

Different kinds of disabilities under RPD Act 2016

The Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) is the nodal agency responsible for overseeing the welfare of the PwDs (persons with disabilities) and the implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. It covers the assistance and rehabilitation needs of all the identified disabilities under the Act:

• Blindness
• Low-vision
• Leprosy Cured persons
• Hearing Impairment
• Locomotor Disability
• Dwarfism
• Intellectual Disability
• Mental Illness
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Cerebral Palsy
• Muscular Dystrophy
• Chronic Neurological conditions
• Specific Learning Disabilities
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Speech and Language disability
• Thalassemia
• Hemophilia
• Sickle Cell disease
• Multiple disabilities, including deaf-blindness, acid-attack survivors, Parkinson’s disease