Roadmap 2011 India is not mature enough to fight its elections on the issue of disability, because its still

battling with basic needs i.e. food, housing and minimum wages. Disability activists are hoping that census 2011 figures are going to help the policy makers in effective planning and outlay for disability sector. The goal ahead is not easy to reach. Firstly there is increasing awareness about the inclusive education; unfortunately we still dont have any research conducted about its success. Second question we need to answer is, are our teachers trained in training differently abled kids? The simple answer is no, unless we expose and educate our trainee teachers to different areas of disability we cant afford to create a level playing field. Provision and adequate supply of assistive technology to kids is yet another area which social justice and empowerment ministry should focus on. Tech Share is one such initiative to bring all the stake holders on one platform. Be it assistive technology product manufacturers, suppliers, disability activists, differently abled persons or researchers on disability. One more noteworthy project this organization has embarked on is converting the office spaces disabled friendly work places. Its also consulting, organizing seminars on assistive technology. The only limitation initiative like this is, it fails to reach beyond the net savvy generation to gather further momentum. According to The persons with disabilities (equal opportunities protection of rights and full participation) act 1995, chapter nine on research, manpower development mentions the appropriate government and local authorities shall promote and sponsor research in the following areas prevention of disability, rehabilitation including community based rehabilitation, development of assistive devices including psycho social aspects, job identification and on site modifications in offices and factories. Until now organizations working in the area of disability were lacking figures at least now organizations need to focus their mind on research. India still doesnt have any authentic data on manpower and fund needed to train the teachers. How effective are rehabilitation schemes? Human rights law network Mumbai conducted a study on the conditions of visually impaired hawkers in Mumbai. The rationale behind the study was these blind hawkers sell their goods in railway station, According to section 144 of railway act it is illegal to vend goods in train and railway platforms. Before commuters were sympathetic and allowed them to sell the goods. In the recent past these hawkers faced few encounters by the authorities. In the year 2003 blind hawkers approached (ICHRL) India centre for human rights law to conduct a survey and document issues and difficulties faced by them. That is when India centre for Human rights law stepped in to know the harassment faced by these hawkers.315 hawkers 49 beggars were interviewed. The study employed non random convenient sampling. Among 263 were men and 52 were women, the procedure fallowed the researchers claim since there was no base line information available they fallowed quantitative sampling and exploratory design.

The main objectives of this study were why blind people take to hawking to earn a living? Why hawkers chose railway stations? To understand difficulties encountered while hawking. In list of recommendations the hawkers requested permission to continue hawking for source of livelihood .They requested to provide them license, which would protect them from harassment by authorities. The researchers also recommended that they should be allowed to continue their work and need for a new policy to enhance their standard of living. Most of them had applied for government schemes and had failed .According to the rules there is 1% reservation for visually impaired citizens. When India centre human rights law contacted Ministry of social justice and empowerment replied back saying that they themselves lack statics. The recommendations also advised government of Maharashtra to create awareness. There is a greater need to improve primary health care and create greater awareness about precautions to prevent childhood blindness. The government should give necessary education and training needed. Ability unlimited under the guidance of Syed Sallauddin Pasha from past decades is training differently abled children in dance and performing arts. Syed Sallauddin Pashas conviction and commitment to bring marginalized to the forefront has bestowed on him many accolades, and awards including, have taken him across the globe for various performances and conducting therapeutic sessions. Beyond the news paper stories, there is no literature available about this . Above mentioned are just two examples to highlight the need for documentation and research. There are innumerable numbers of philanthropists doing exemplary work in this area .They throw up various research ideas through their work. Anjlee Agarwal who is involved in spreading the word about accessibility of public places for all by making user friendly .To cite an example from her own research paper titled Accessibility research and building standard regulation (building bye laws by various governments) sponsored by Department of international development U.K. This research conducted in Delhi, Ahmadabad, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar Panaji and Kolkata. According to the paper in Delhi model in chapter three there are laws pertaining to residential as well as non residential places. According to persons with disability act 2011 makes it mandatory for all buildings, programmes, services user friendly for all people. Universal design as defined the present draft Universal design means the design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. Universal design shall not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed Additionally all the public buildings, are supposed to be user friendly by all people and all existing public buildings used for government purposes shall be made accessible within three years from the enactment of this act. All other public buildings shall be accessible not less than five years. Disability rights authority has shouldered the responsibility of monitoring the process. Disability rights authority along with the central government is responsible in developing and monitoring for all services accessibility regulations for all services and facilities provided for public at large both rural and urban areas. Disability rights authority is bestowed with duty to conduct research and development in the area of universal design and barrier free environment.

This proves India has finally opened its eyes to research and development in the area of disability which is a positive step. Finally government and organizations working for the empowerment of disabled have understood the importance of research, and that no policy can bring miracles to the disability community. B.S.Manjunath