Right to Read: Campaign Updates
A nationwide campaign on Right to Read was co-organised by CIS along with the Daisy Forum of India and Inclusive planet to highlight the lack of content in accessible formats and accelerate change in the provisions of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, which presently does not permit the conversion of books in accessible formats for the benefits the blind, visually impaired and other reading disabled persons. The campaign is affiliated with the global R2R campaign started by the World Blind Union in April 2008.
The campaign in India began in Chennai and was taken up thereafter, in other cities, namely Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. The campaign has gathered thousands of supporters and has succeeded in bringing the problems of the print disabled to the notice of policy makers and the general public.
In order to bring its supporters regular updates about the progress of the campaign, CIS has started a newsletter. The first newsletter went out to a thousand people on the 23rd of this month:
National Campaigns
- National Right to Read Events
Until now four Right to Read events: Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai have been held in India.
- Legal Paper on the Right to Read Submitted to the Government
CIS along with Alternative Law Forum and Inclusive Planet submitted a paper on the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 to the HRD Ministry.
- The Ministry of HRD has presented the Bill to the Parliament which has been referred to the Standing Committee.
- The Bill has attracted newspaper publicity: http://bit.ly/d2S5mc, http://bit.ly/bYkctq, http://bit.ly/buqbLs, http://bit.ly/cHp1bg, http://bit.ly/9LF1Ep, http://bit.ly/cwO4Yv, http://bit.ly/aj7D9p, http://bit.ly/aWv7G9 and http://bit.ly/aFyKrC.
- An updated list of signatories is available here.
International Development
- A debate on EU supporting a binding treaty for enabling access to published works was held in the European Parliament. Details are available at: (http://bit.ly/94cqVc, http://bit.ly/aVWkyC, http://bit.ly/cDVysw).
We thank you for taking interest in our campaign and look forward to your continued support to make this campaign a success.
Author
Prasad Krishna
Prasad Krishna previously worked in a newspaper and some reputed publications. He is MA in English, PGD in Journalism and LLB from the University of Delhi.
