Centre for Internet and Society

National Resource Kit : The Haryana Chapter (Revised)

anandi — 2014-02-20T09:00:49Z

The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Haryana.

Note: The chapter was revised based on the comments and feedback from our readers.

Introduction

The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment is responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities in Haryana. The state has an estimated population of 4,55,040 persons with disabilities in a total population of 25,353,081.

Haryana implements two schemes under Women and Children with Disabilities, three schemes under Education, three schemes under Skill Development and Employment, and five schemes under Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation and Recreation.

1. General Entitlements

Haryana does not implement any scheme / policy that can be listed in this category.

2. Women & Children with Disabilities

2.1 Financial assistance is provided to children with disabilities not attending school due to their disability.

2.2 Haryana provides financial assistance to children of persons with disabilities.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Justice & Empowerment Department	No. 2351-SW(4)-2008 Dated: 30.01.2009	Financial assistance to disabled children not attending school due to disability
2	Social Justice & Empowerment Department	No. 1953-SW(4)-2009 Dated: 30.10.2009	Financial assistance for non school going children with severe disability Disability more than 70% / IQ less than 50% for mental disability Assistance of Rs. 300 per month Assistance provided to multiple children from same family Age up to 18 years Domiciled and resided in Haryana for past six months Total family income not to exceed Rs. 3510 per month Beneficiaries drawing other assistance are not eligible to apply
3	Social Justice & Empowerment Department		Financial assistance to children of persons with disabilities Assistance – Rs. 500 per month Age below 21 years Total family income not exceeding Rs. 30,000 per annum Domiciled and residing in Haryana

3. Education

3.1 Rules outlined for residential school for visually impaired students ‘Government Institute for the Blind’ in Panipat. Application forms available at the offices of Dy Commissioner, SDOs (Civil), Tehsildars and Department of Social Justice & Empowerment DSJE).

3.2 Scholarship is provided to disabled students. Applicants should not be in receipt of assistance from any other source. Rates of scholarship listed below:

Sr. No.	Class	Scholarship (Day scholars) per month	Scholarship (hostellers) per month	Reader Allowance (only visually impaired) per month
1	Class 1 – 4	400/-	-	-
2	Class 5 – 8	500/-	-	-
3	Class 9 – 12	600/-	600/-	300/-
4	B.A/B.Sc/B.Com	600/-	800/-	400/-
5	B.E/B.Tech./MBBS/LLB/B.Ed and diploma in professional & engineering studies etc.	800/-	1000/-	500/-
6	MA/MSC/M.Com/LLM/M.Ed/M.Tech etc	1000/-	1000/-	500/-

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment	No. GA.I SW. 71, Dated Chandigarh	Rules for residential school for the visually impaired Age between 6 – 18 years Eligibility up to middle school Domiciled and residing in Haryana
2	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment	No. 1971 /DDSW-GA-II/71	Criteria for scholarship Age up to 20 years Total family income not exceeding Rs. 10,000 per month Domiciled and residing in Haryana
3	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment	Memo No. 848-SW(4)-2011 Chandigarh, dated 28-11-2011	Rates of scholarship (given in table above)

4. Skill Development & Employment

4.1 Rules outlined for residential skill training facility for the visually impaired ‘Training Centre for Adult Blind’ at Panipat. Application forms available at the offices of Dy Commissioners, SDOS (Civil), Tehsildars and DSJE.

4.2 Annual awards given to most efficient disabled employees, disabled self-employed, outstanding employers and placement officers for disabled.

S.No	Category of Award	Nature of the Award No. of Awards	Present rates and certificate	Revised rates and certificates
1	Employee/ Self Employed	First Prize (one) Second Prize (one) Third Prize (two) Fourth Prize(three)	Rs.5000/- and certificate Rs. 4000/- ad certificate Rs. 3000/- and certificate Rs. 2000/- and certificate	Rs. 10000/- and certificates. Rs. 8000/- and certificate Rs. 6000/- and certificate Rs. 4000/- and certificate.
2	Employers of disabled	First Prize (one) Second Prize (one)	A big shield and certificate of merit. A small shield and certificate of merit.	Rs. 5000/- and certificate of merit. Rs. 3000/- and certificate of merit.
3	Placement Officer of disabled	One Prize	Rs. 4000/- and certificate of merit.	Rs. 8000/- and certificate of merit.

4.3 Age relaxation up to 10 years in the upper age limit for joining government service for persons with disabilities. Retirement age of persons with 70% or more disability is increased to 60 years.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment	No. GA.I SW. 71, Dated Chandigarh No. 1971 /DDSW-GA-II/71	Rules for residential skill training unit for visually impaired Trainees granted maintenance for 3 years Extra 6 months for persons above 52 years old Domiciled and residing in Haryana
2	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment	No. 1759SW(1) /2008 Chandigarh, Dated: 4.02.2008	Awards for disabled employees, employers and placement officers (for details see table above)
3	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment		10 years relaxation in upper age limit in recruitment to govt service Retirement age increased to 60 years for persons with 70% or more disability

5. Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation and Recreation

5.1 Unemployment allowance given to all educated unemployed persons with disabilities. Rates of allowance are:

Sr. No.	Education	Allowance per month	Allowance per month for 100% disabled
1	Matric/ Middle Pass Diploma Holder	Rs. 200	Rs. 1000
2	Graduate/ Matric Pass Diploma Holder	Rs. 250	Rs. 1500
3	Post Graduate, Graduate Diploma Holder	Rs. 300	Rs. 2000

5.2 Disability pension to persons with 70% or more disability (IQ less than 50 for persons with mental disabilities). (note 3)

5.3 Financial assistance of Rs. 500 per month to dwarf persons. (note 3)

5.4 Persons with visual impairment and 100% orthopaedic impairment are eligible for free travel on state transport buses. Disabled employees of the state government are provided a conveyance allowance of 10% on basic pay. (note 4)

5.5 Visually impaired employees of the state government are given priority in allotment of government accommodation. (note 4)

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment	No. 3012-SW (1)2003. Dated, 8.12.2003 No. 94-SW (1)2007. Dated: 24.01.2007	Unemployment allowance (for rates see table above) Allowance given for 6 years from date of registration with employment exchange Applicants must not be in receipt of any other assistance
2	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment		Disability pension for persons with 70% or more disability (less than 50 IQ for mentally disabled) Pension – Rs. 500 per month Pension (for 80% or more disability) – Rs. 750 per month Income not to exceed income of unskilled labourers as specified by Labour Department.
3	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment		Financial assistance of Rs. 500 per month to dwarf persons
4	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment		Free travel on state transport buses for persons with visual impairment and 100% orthopaedic impairment 10% conveyance allowance for government employees with disabilities
5	Department of Social Justice & Empowerment		Priority for visually impaired employees in allotment of govt accommodation

6. Accessibility

6.1 The government of Haryana is yet to implement schemes and policies under accessibility.

7.    Certification

7.1 Haryana has not identified any hospital / medical officer for issueing of disability certificates.

8.    Schemes & Grants for Organisations & Individuals for Disabilities

8.1    The government of Haryana is yet to implement schemes and policies under this category.

9. Disability Authorities

Haryana has two authorities responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities:

Department of Social Justice and Empowerment
Commissioner for Disabilities

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-haryana-chapter-call-for-comments

National Resource Kit: The Dadra & Nagar Haveli Chapter (Call for Comments)

CLPR — 2014-02-20T06:37:14Z

The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the union territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Executive Summary

The Department of Social Welfare is responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities in Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The state has an estimated population of 4048 persons with disabilities in a total population of 3,42,853 people.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli has issued one scheme under Education, one scheme under Skill Development and Employment and two schemes under Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation & Recreation.

1.   General Entitlements
1.1 Dadra and Nagar Haveli does not have any general entitlements for women and children with disabilities.

2.   Women and Children with Disabilities
2.1   Dadra and Nagar Haveli does not have any specific policy for women and children with disabilities.

3.   Education
3.1 Students with disabilities are provided scholarship by the government as encouragement to continue their education. Students in primary, pre-matriculation, secondary, senior secondary school and professional degrees are provided scholarship in the range of Rs. 50 to Rs. 240 per month based on their class and qualification. Students with visual impairment are provided reader allowance in the range of Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per month based on their class.

4.   Skill Development and Employment
4.1 The Government of Dadra and Nagar Haveli provides a reservation of 1% in Grade 'C' and 'D' posts in Government jobs. The upper age limit is relaxed by 5 years for persons with disabilities applying for Government jobs.

5.   Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation and Recreation
5.1 The Government of Dadra and Nagar Haveli provide persons with disabilities Rs. 60 per month as diasbility pension.

5.2 Dadra and Nagar Haveli provides financial assistance for the purchase of aids and appliances that are required to increase the mobility of persons with disabilities. The quantum of assistance ranges from Rs. 220 per month to Rs. 600 per month based on the cost.

6.   Accessibility
6.1 The government of Dadra and Nagar Haveli is yet to implement schemes and policies under accessibility.

7.   Certification
7.1   The government does not provide disability certificates to persons with disabilities.

8.   Schemes & Grants for Organisations & Individuals for Disabilities
8.1 There are no schemes and grants for organisations and individuals with disabilities.

9.   Disability Authorities
Dadra and Nagar Haveli has two authorities responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities:

Department of Social Welfare
Commissioner for Disabilities.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-dadra-and-nagar-haveli-chapter

National Resource Kit: The Mizoram Chapter (Call for Comments)

CLPR — 2014-03-06T16:26:19Z

The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Mizoram.

Click to download the chapter in the revised format.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-mizoram-chapter

The Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2013 and the Lack of Access to Accessibility Rights

salelkar — 2014-02-03T02:21:45Z

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2013 (The RPD Bill) went through three avatars since its commissioning in 2009 under the Sudha Kaul Committee. This blog post brings you a summary of the three stages since it was initially commissioned.

The first was the one the Committee proposed in 2011, after consultations with persons with disabilities and Disabled People's Organizations across the country; the second was notified by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2012, which was in parts opposed to by several stakeholders; and the third, the RPD BIll of 2013, has actually brought the entire disability lobby, as it were, together, in being entirely appalled at the turn of events. The Bill, which is being furiously evaluated in the short time available between its being made available to the public and its impending introduction (and possible passing in the House), is full of flaws. Not only does it not adhere to the standards of the UNCRPD, but it also violates the spirit of the Indian Constitution, as well as contradicting existing case law, and most importantly it betrays the consensus and recommendations of persons with disabilities who were initially part of these recommendations.

Doubtlessly, while access to government establishments and entities like courts, collectorates, municipal offices, is important for persons with disabilities, there are other establishments which are equally important for persons with disabilities, for purposes of recreation, access to culture, and private services. I've made the point elsewhere that the law proposed is less of an empowering statute and more on the lines of the charity model – and in line with that, the indication is that persons with disabilities will only ever have to come in contact with the government and other entities, so they can enforce rights, take grants, petition government servants, etc. But if the statute itself is rights based, why so much focus on access to forums for rights enforcement, and not on others beyond this?

While they did have their flaws, the 2011 and 2012 versions of the Bill, which had rather comprehensive provisions with regard to ensuring accessibility. To start with, the right of persons with disabilities, on an equal basis with others to the physical environment, transportation, information and communications, including appropriate technologies and systems, and other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas, was recognized. The RPD Bill recognizes the obligation of the government to provide accessibility measures, but by now wording it in terms of a right, it does not do complete justice. The 2011 and 2012 drafts were replete with separate sections on the right to transport, personal mobility, communications, services, the built environment, etc. On the other hand, the RPD Bill clumsily lops all of these into a few sections, with repeated emphasis on infrastructure and services run by "establishments", which is, in effect, the government. There is no mention of website accessibility, though a cursory mention is made to the appropriate government ensuring that all contents available in audio, print and electronic media are in accessible format; and that persons with disabilities have access to electronic media by providing audio description, sign language interpretation and close captioning. Again, the ambiguity as to whether this extends to websites which are not run by the government, is not clear.

There is another aspect to accessibility which is lost under the Act by its failure to recognize it as a right. A senior person in the sector, who is blind, told me of an instance where he was barred from entering a bar with some friends. "You won't be able to tell what the bill is or how many drinks you've had", said the manager. He was therefore, being discriminated against entering a place, solely on the grounds of his disability. Persons who have been cured of leprosy are denied access to transport and other public facilities on the basis of outdated statutes. Persons who use crutches and calllipers are denied entry to religious places. The understanding of the Bill on accessibility is extremely limited, and limited to the built environment of government establishments, and this does nothing to extend the rights of persons with disabilities. Groups which are forwarding non negotiables for amendments to the Bill do not consider, at present, the right to accessibility to be a non negotiable. I do wonder, however, whether any of the other rights make sense when express and implied bars to access exist and are effectively encouraged, under this proposed law.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-bill-2013-and-lack-of-access-to-accessibility-rights

January 2014 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-04-07T07:09:59Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcomes you to the first issue of its newsletter (January) for the year 2014:

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Highlights
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Amba Salelkar provides an analysis of the three stages of the Rights for Persons with Disabilities 2013 since it was initially commissioned.
We published revised chapters for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as part of our National Resource Kit project.
In the first of a three-part study Ananth Padmanabhan examines the "John Doe" orders that courts have passed against ISPs, which entertainment companies have used to block websites.
The second Institute on Internet and Society is being held in Pune from February 11 to 17.
CIS signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with KIIT University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences for furthering Odia Wikipedia.
Dr. Nishant Shah co-authored a chapter on video games in a book published by Palestinian Art Court-al Hoash.
Sneha gives an overview of the research enquiry in the field of Digital Humanities in her blog post on Mapping Digital Humanities in India.
In the first of the insightful seven part series, Gautam Bhatia looks at surveillance and the right to privacy in India from a constitutional perspective, tracing its genealogy through Supreme Court case law and compares it with the law in the USA.

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Jobs
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CIS is seeking applications for the posts of Program Officer (Access to Knowledge): http://bit.ly/1fnydB0 and Program Officer (Internet Governance): http://bit.ly/1aA57K6. There are two vacancies each for these posts and these are full-time based in Delhi. To apply, please send your resume to Sunil Abraham (sunil@cis-india.org), Nirmita Narasimhan (nirmita@cis-india.org) and Pranesh Prakash (pranesh@cis-india.org) with three writing samples of which at least one demonstrates your analytic skills, and one that shows your ability to simplify complex policy issues.

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Accessibility and Inclusion
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As part of our project (under a grant from the Hans Foundation) on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India, we bring you draft chapters for the states of Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, and the union territory of Daman and Diu. With this we have completed compilation of draft chapters for 27 states and 5 union territories.

Based on the feedback and comments received from our readers the following chapters were revised:

► National Resource Kit Chapter

Andhra Pradesh Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1lzUFcG.
Chhattisgarh Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fY4NZ0.

# Blog Entry

The Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2013 and the Lack of Access to Accessibility Rights (by Amba Salelkar, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1diSg40.

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Access to Knowledge
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The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers and human rights, and critically examines Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, and Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software.

# Analysis

Can Judges Order ISPs to Block Websites for Copyright Infringement? (Part 1) (by Ananth Padmanabhan, January 30, 2014). Ananth looks at the theory behind John Doe orders and finds that it would be wrong for Indian courts to grant "John Doe" orders against ISPs: http://bit.ly/1nteYaK.

# Blog Entries

Open Letter to the Vatican: Request for Holy See to Comment on IPR (by Samantha Cassar, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1dGN7OS.
The Game of IPR: Insights from the 6th Global Intellectual Property Convention in Hyderabad (by Samantha Cassar, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fY5qS6.

The following has been done under grant from the Wikimedia Foundation (http://bit.ly/SPqFOl). As part this project (http://bit.ly/X80ELd), we organised 4 workshops in the month of January, published an article in DNA, and signed a memorandum of understanding with KIIT University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences to further the development of Odia Wikipedia:

►Wikipedia

# Articles / Newspaper Columns

Odia Wikipedia: Three Years of Active Contributions Gives Life to a Ten Year Old Project (by Subhashish Panigrahi, HASTAC, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1jvxD8r.
WikiSangamotsavam 2013 brings Indian Wikimedians together (by Netha Hussain and Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, January 14, 2014). The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane: http://bit.ly/1jvynKP.

# Announcement

CIS-A2K, KIIT University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences sign MoUs (by Subhashish Panigrahi, January 11, 2014): KIIT University, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoUs) for furthering Odia Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/1j1qtFv.

# Blog Entries

Wikipedia Editing as Assessment Tool in the Indian Higher Education Classroom (by Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana, Ashwin Kumar A.P. and T. Vishnu Vardhan, January 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1m5QHMD.
Wikipedia at Forefront in Christ University (by Syed Muzamiluddin, January 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/LTFA8E.

# Events Organised

Odia WikiMeetup (Bhubaneswar, January 11, 2014): http://bit.ly/NBkFJi.
Introductory talk about "Wikipedia in Academics" (KIIT School of Technology, Bhubaneswar, January 12, 2014): http://bit.ly/1j1yv1f.
Odia Wikipedia's 10th anniversary @ KISS (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar, January 28, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gsqkJC.
Odia Wikipedia 10th anniversary (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, January 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1dGRBoy.

# Event Participated In

The Dynamics of Education to Employment Journey: Opportunities and Challenges (organized by KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, February 21-22, 2014). T. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk: http://bit.ly/1ePwqHc.

# Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Digitising contest to preserve rare books in Malayalam (The Hindu, January 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/NBtVgz.
‘With Internet in every pocket, power to the people’ (by Shubhadeep Chaudhury, The Tribune, January 12, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ojb1IZ. Shubhadeep interviews T. Vishnu Vardhan on internet and social media.
ଆଦିବାସୀଭାଷାରଉନ୍ନତିକଳ୍ପେଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ(Odishan.com, January 12, 2014):http://bit.ly/1kAWJmG.
KIIT University to lead building free knowledge repository initiative (India Education Diary.com, January 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1j1Rzwk.
Odisha: KISS to create tribal languages and heritage repository (Odisha Diary Bureau, January 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1bLBhmB.
FDC recognition for the Centre for the Internet and Society (Wikimedia Foundation, January 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fYdxOz. Wikimedia Foundation published a resolution declaring CIS eligible for funding through the Annual Plan Grants program.
Tech-savvy students given tips to enter IT field (The Times of India, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1j1QvIX.
Odia Wikipedia (Sanchar, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ePwAON.

Openness

# Event Organised

What is happening in South America and how Openness is an opportunity to Social, Political and Activist Movements? (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, January 17, 2014): http://bit.ly/1bnZaq0.

# Analyses

Surveillance and the Indian Constitution - Part 1: Foundations (by Gautam Bhatia, January 13, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ntqsen.
Surveillance and the Indian Constitution - Part 2: Gobind and the Compelling State Interest Test (by Gautam Bhatia, January 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/1dH3meL.

# Newspaper Columns / Book Chapter

Big Brother is Watching You (by Chinmayi Arun, The Hindu, January 3, 2014): http://bit.ly/1cGpg0K.
Making the Powerful Accountable (by Chinmayi Arun, The Hindu, January 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1nvzSpC.
Video Games: A Case Study of a Cross-cultural Video Collaboration (by Larissa Hjorth and Nishant Shah, January 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1eTaXLX. A new book focusing on Palestinian artists’ video, edited by Bashir Makhoul and published by Palestinian Art Court- al Hoash, 2013, includes a chapter co-authored by Larissa and Nishant.

# Blog Entries

Letter requesting public consultation on position of GoI at WGEC (by Snehashish Ghosh, January 7, 2014): http://bit.ly/1g66bL7.
Electoral Databases – Privacy and Security Concerns (by Snehashish Ghosh, January 16, 2014): http://bit.ly/Mb4ktM.
GNI Assessment Finds ICT Companies Protect User Privacy and Freedom of Expression (by Elonnai Hickok, January 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mjbpmL.
Interview with Mathew Thomas from the Say No to UID campaign - UID Court Cases (by Maria Xynou, January 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/1eT9XHv. Maria interviewed Mathew Thomas on UID.
India's Central Monitoring System (CMS): Something to Worry About? (by Maria Xynou, January 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gsM4oQ.

# Events Organized

Biometrics or Bust? Implications of the UID for Participation and Inclusion (CIS, Bangalore, January 10, 2014). Malavika Jayaram gave a talk: http://bit.ly/1lJZhuK.
Digital Citizens: Why Cyber Security and Online Privacy are Vital to the Success of Democracy and Freedom of Expression (CIS, Bangalore, January 14, 2014): http://bit.ly/KucEU5. Michael Oghia gave a talk.
Nullcon Goa Feb 2014 — International Security Conference (organised by Nullcon, Bogmallo Beach Resort, Goa, February 12 – 15, 2014). CIS is one of the sponsors for this event: http://bit.ly/1lrBu5I.

# Events Co-organised

CPDP 2014 Reforming Data Protection: The Global Perspective (organised by CPDP, Brussels, January 22 – 24, 2014): http://bit.ly/KsgCws. CIS is one of the sponsors for this event. Malavika Jayaram was a speaker.
The Future of the Internet, Who Should Govern It and What is at Stake for You? (organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India, Cellular Operators Association of India, Internet Democracy project, Media for Change, SFLC and CIS, India International Centre, January 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1eqkSUu. Chinmayi Arun moderated a session. Snehashish Ghosh participated in the event as a speaker.

# Events Participated In

Seminar on "Hate Speech and Social Media" (organized by NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad and British Deputy High Commission, Hyderabad, January 4 – 5, 2014): http://bit.ly/1dmcEkT. Chinmayi Arun was one of the speakers.
Multistakeholders Consultation on International Public Policy Issues (organized by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology, New Delhi, January 21, 2014): http://bit.ly/Mbfkao. Snehashish Ghosh participated in this meeting.
Internet Governance and India: The Way Forward (organized by Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, January 22, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ePFueY. Snehashish Ghosh participated in the event.
Data Privacy Day 2014 (organized by Data Security Council of India, Infosys, Bangalore, January 28, 2014). Elonnai Hickok was a panelist: http://bit.ly/1ePFfk8.
TACTIS Symposium 2014 (organized by Tata Consultancy Service, TCS Siruseri, Chennai, January 28 and 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1bo9y0R. Sunil Abraham gave the keynote address.

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News & Media Coverage
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CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Inventions that will make a difference (by Geeta Padmanabhan, The Hindu, January 1, 2014): http://bit.ly/MKwmfu.
Rise of the bot: all you need to know about the latest threat online (by Danish Raza, Hindustan Times, January 5, 2014): http://bit.ly/1dHgNex.
Despite apex court order, IOC proceeds with Aadhaar-linked DBT (by Deepa Kurup, The Hindu, January 6, 2014): http://bit.ly/1g6ffjn.
Worldwide: International Privacy - 2013 Year in Review – Asia (by Gonzalo S. Zeballos, James A. Sherer and Alan M. Pate, Mondaq Yearly Review, January 8, 2014): http://bit.ly/1iOaYRO.
Election panel rejects Google’s proposal for electoral services tie-up (by Anuja and Moulishree Srivastava, Livemint, January 9, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gpaGjF.
Social Notworking - 'Murder by Twitter'(by Malini Nair, The Times of India, January 19, 2014): http://bit.ly/1j2kT63.
The net is taking over (by Veenu Sandhu and Surabhi Agarwal, Business Standard, January 24, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hb4eQL.
The Dangers of Birdsong (by Namrata Joshi, January 25, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kB8J7L.
Is Bhutan selling its soul to Google? (by Lucky Wangmo from Thimphu and Pema Seldon form Bangalore, Business Bhutan, January 25, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fYl3sO.
What is net neutrality and why it is important (The Times of India, January 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ePFZ8P.

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Digital Humanities
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CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:

# Blog Entry

Mapping Digital Humanities in India (by Sneha PP, January 16, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gsQEEQ.

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Digital Natives
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CIS is doing a research project titled “Making Change”. The project will explore new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, the project will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia:

►Making Change Project

# Blog Entry

Creative Activism - Voices of Young Change Makers in India (UDAAN) (by Denisse Albornoz, January 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1cxXAMI.

►Other
# Newspaper Column

10 Ways to Say Nothing New (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, January 19, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gsONjn.

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Knowledge Repository on Internet Access
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CIS in partnership with the Ford Foundation is executing a project to create a knowledge repository on Internet and society. This repository will comprise content targeted primarily at civil society with a view to enabling their informed participation in the Indian Internet and ICT policy space. The repository is available at the Internet Institute website: http://bit.ly/1iQT2UB.

►Ongoing Event

Institute on Internet and Society (organised by Ford Foundation and CIS, Yashada, Pune, February 11-17, 2014): http://bit.ly/180mQi9.

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About CIS
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The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter:https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us
Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration:
We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2014-bulletin

National Resource Kit: The Gujarat Chapter (Call for Comments)

anandi — 2014-01-08T07:01:33Z

The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Gujarat.

Executive Summary

The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment is responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities in Gujarat. The state has an estimated population of 1,045,465[1] persons with disabilities in a total population of 60,439,692[2]people. Gujarat has issued two resolutions under General Entitlements, four schemes under Women & Children with Disabilities, three schemes under Education, one resolution under Skill Development & Employment and seven schemes under Social Security, Health, and Rehabilitation & Recreation.

General Entitlements

The office of the police commissioner of Surat has circulated guidelines within the department for handling persons with mental illness moving unescorted in public places.[3] The guidelines require that:

The Police Inspector or senior Police Sub-inspector should directly deal with the person with mental illness.
The details of the person should be entered in the records of the police station and a report made.
The person with mental illness should be produced in the court of respective judicial magistrate with the report on the same day.
If the person is ordered to be admitted in a mental hospital by the judicial magistrate, the person should be admitted to the facility immediately.
In case of persons with mental illness who show excited or violent behaviour, the above process should be pursued with the help of the Forensic Science Department.
Women police officers should be present mandatorily in cases where women with mental illness are involved.

The government has passed a resolution mandating the use of terms like disability and disabled while referring to persons with disabilities instead of terms like handicapped, physical handicap in all its official communication.[4]

Sr. No.	Notification No.	Details
1	The Office of the Police Commissioner, Surat No. RB/Mentally Ill/4343/2010 Dated: 15.03.2010	Guidelines to police while handling persons with mental illness
2	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. apg/102010/337/chh-1 Dated: 30. 12. 2010	Guidelines on official references to persons with disabilities

Women and Children with Disabilities

The government of Gujarat provides assistance of Rs. 40,000 to widowed women with disabilities towards construction of a pukka house (brick, stone and cement house with terrace).[5] This assistance is available once only to women in the age group of 18 to 60 years. The upper limit of the grant is Rs. 50,000 for rural areas and Rs. 70,000 for urban areas. The government also provides grants to widowed women with disabilities in the categories of scheduled caste[6] and scheduled tribe separately.

Widowed women with disabilities fulfilling the following conditions are eligible to apply:

Should have a minimum of 40 per cent disability.
Should possess a plot of land for constructing the house.
Should have resided for at least five years in the area where the house is to be constructed.
Should not be in receipt of benefit under any other housing scheme and should give a written undertaking regarding the same.
Should submit a certificate from a competent authority showing the date of death of her husband.
Should possess a disability certificate and a disability identity card.

The Department of Panchayats and Rural Housing provides assistance for construction of residential units to widowed women with disabilities in rural Gujarat.[8] Under this scheme, assistance of Rs. 54,500 is provided to widowed women with disabilities. The grant also covers labour charges for construction of the residential unit.

Sr. No.	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.21/Chh-1 Dated: 07. 07. 2008	Grant for disabled widows for construction of house
2	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.22/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008	Grant for disabled widows belonging to scheduled caste for construction of house
3	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.20/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008	Grant for disabled widows belonging to scheduled tribe for construction of house
4	Department of Panchayats and Rural Housing, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. prch/102009/819/1 Dated: 30. 06. 2011	Grant for disabled widows for construction of residential unit

Education

As the allowance provided by the central Integrated Education for the Disabled in Secondary Stage (IEDSS) scheme only covers students with disabilities studying in government secondary schools, the government of Gujarat provides additional scholarship for SC students with disabilities studying in Class IX and Class X in private unaided recognised schools. Students are eligible for allowances as listed below:

Category of Scholarship	Amount
Reader allowance for visually impaired students	Rs. 160 per month
Transport allowance (applicable for day scholars)	Rs. 160 per month
Escort allowance for day scholars with 80 per cent or more disabilities	Rs. 160 per month
Helper allowance (any employee of the hostel willing to help students with 80 per cent or more orthopaedic disabilities)	Rs. 160 per month
Coaching allowance for students with mental disabilities and mental health issues	Rs. 240 per month

Applicants should fulfil the following requirements:

Should present the disability certificate from the competent medical authority of the state government.

The total family income of parents or guardians should not exceed Rs. 2,00,000 per annum.

The scholarship will be paid for a period of 10 months in an academic year.

Students with disabilities belonging to scheduled caste[10] or schedule tribe[11] whose parents / guardians have a maximum annual income of Rs. 50,000 are eligible to receive scholarship from the government of Gujarat.

Sr. No.	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. PMS/13/2012/405526/G Dated: 18. 06. 2013	Scholarship for disabled students in SC category in private unaided schools
2	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.9/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.	Scholarship to disabled students in SC category
3	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.10/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008	Scholarship to disabled students in ST category

Skill Development & Employment

The government of Gujarat has passed a resolution that a 100 number roster will be maintained to provide three per cent reservation for persons with disabilities in direct recruitment. The vacancies of numbers 34, 68 and 100 will be reserved for persons with disabilities.

Sr. No.	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Circular No. PVT/102012/138/ROSTER Dated: 18. 06. 2012.	Roster point system for direct recruitment to govt employment

Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation and Recreation

The government provides financial assistance to persons with severe disabilities (80 per cent or more disability) jointly under the Sant Surdas Scheme of the state government and the central Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme.[13]

Under these schemes, persons with severe disabilities in the age group of zero to 17 years are eligible to receive assistance of Rs. 200 per month. Persons with severe disabilities in the age group of 18 to 64 years are eligible to receive assistance of Rs. 400 per month (Rs. 200 under the state scheme and Rs. 200 under the central scheme).

Persons with severe disabilities who are residents of Gujarat and who are below poverty line are eligible for assistance under this scheme.

Persons with disabilities living below poverty line and who are above 64 years of age are eligible to receive old age pension under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme.[14]

The government of Gujarat provides persons with disabilities receiving pension under the Sant Surdas Scheme, Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme and Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme the option of receiving their pension in their bank accounts, post office accounts or on their doorstep through money orders.[15] Beneficiaries are required to indicate their preferred option to the payment officer in the prescribed format.

The government of Gujarat provides financial assistance of Rs. 4000 to state government employees with orthopaedic disabilities towards purchasing of foldable wheelchair.[16] This assistance is provided once to all employees with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities whose income is less than Rs. 25,000 per annum and who fall in the age group of five to 50 years are eligible for assistance from the government for purchase and fitting of aids and appliances for rehabilitation, and for purchase of educationally and vocationally useful equipment.[17]

This assistance is provided separately to persons with disabilities belonging to the scheduled caste[18] and scheduled tribe[19] categories.

Sr. No.	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution NO. APG/102009/No. 9 to 14/Chh-1 Dated: 13. 08. 2008	Financial assistance to the severely disabled
	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar Circular No. apg/102009/216(1)/chh-1 Dated: 31. 07. 2009	Financial assistance to disabled senior citizens
	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG-102008-37-Chh.1 Dated: 13. 08. 2008	Assistance to govt employees for purchase of folding wheelchair
	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102009/216/Chh.1 Dated: 03. 11. 2009	Option of receiving pension through money order
	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.6/Chh.1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008	Assistance for purchase and fitting of aids and appliances
	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.7/Chh.1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008	Assistance for purchase and fitting of aids and appliances to persons belonging to SC category
	Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.8/Chh.1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008	Assistance for purchase and fitting of aids and appliances to persons belonging to ST category

Accessibility

The government of Gujarat is yet to implement schemes and policies towards accessibility.

Certification

The Social Security Department under the Social Justice and Empowerment Department issues disability identity cards for persons with disabilities with an income of not more than Rs. 2,50,000 per annum. Applicants should submit proof of income issued by the Namlatdar / Taluka Development Officer and two passport size photographs along with the application.[20]

Employees with disabilities serving with the government or with government aided organisations may submit certificate of income issued by the state / central government offices, government aided organisations and, boards and corporations functioning under the governments or panchayats as proof of income.

Documents such as ration card, true copy of electricity bill, municipal tax bill or receipt of house tax from the gram Panchayat, driving licence or voter ID card may be presented as proof of residence.

Sr. No.	Notification No.	Details
1	Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. apg/102007/1077/chh-1 Dated: 12. 05. 2008	Disability identity cards

Schemes & Grants for Organisations & Individuals for Disabilities

There are no specific grants or schemes for organisations or individuals operating in the field of disabilities.

Disability Authorities

Gujarat has two authorities responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities:

Social Justice and Empowerment Department
Commissioner for Disabilities.

[1]. http://www.socialjustice.nic.in/statewisedisabled.php.

[2]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarat.

[3]. The Office of the Police Commissioner, Surat, No. RB/Mentally Ill/4343/2010 Dated: 15. 03. 2010.

[4]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. apg/102010/337/chh-1 Dated: 30. 12. 2010.

[5]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.21/Chh-1 Dated: 07. 07. 2008.

[6]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.22/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.

[7]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.20/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.

[8]. Department of Panchayats and Rural Housing, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. prch/102009/819/1 Dated: 30. 06. 2011.

[9]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. PMS/13/2012/405526/G Dated: 18. 06. 2013.

[10]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.9/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.

[11]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.10/Chh 1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.

[12]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Circular No. PVT/102012/138/ROSTER Dated: 18. 06. 2012.

[13]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution NO. APG/102009/No. 9 to 14/Chh-1 Dated: 13. 08. 2008.

[14]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar. Circular No. apg/102009/216(1)/chh-1 Dated: 31. 07. 2009.

[15]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. APG/102009/216/Chh.1 Dated: 03. 11. 2009.

[16]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. APG-102008-37-Chh.1 Dated: 13. 08. 2008.

[17]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.6/Chh.1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.

[18]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.7/Chh.1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.

[19]. Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sachivalay, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. APG/102007/N.B.8/Chh.1 Dated: 31. 03. 2008.

[20]. Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Secretariat, Gandhi Nagar. Resolution No. apg/102007/1077/chh-1 Dated: 12. 05. 2008.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-gujarat-chapter

December 2013 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-02-25T13:51:47Z

Our newsletter for the month of December 2013 can be accessed below.

We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) wish you all a great year ahead and welcome you to the twelfth issue of its newsletter (December) for the year 2013:

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Highlights
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The National Resource Kit team has published a draft chapter highlighting the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Gujarat.
Government of India has passed the National Electronic Accessibility Policy. CIS had worked with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology to formulate this policy. We bring you a brief analysis of the policy and provisions therein in a blog post.
Nehaa Chaudhari on behalf of CIS submitted comments on the Proposed WIPO Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
CIS-A2K team has published a report highlighting the key accomplishments about the work accomplished on Konkani Wikipedia from September to December 2013.
Vipul Kharbanda has provided an analysis of the laws and regulations that apply to Bitcoin in India concluding that government can regulate Bitcoin.
We released the first documentary film (DesiSec) on cyber security in India in Bangalore on December 11.
In the module on Global Histories of the Internet (part of the Knowledge Repository on Internet Access project) Nishant Shah analyses the understanding of the internet, cyberspace and everyday life and why do we need to know the history of the internet.
The second "Institute on Internet and Society" will be held in Yashada, Pune from February 11 to 17, 2014.
As part of the Making Change project, Denisse Albornoz provides an analysis of the benefits and limitations of increasing access to information to enable citizenship and political participation.

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Jobs
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CIS is seeking applications for the posts of Program Officer (Access to Knowledge) and Program Officer (Internet Governance): http://bit.ly/1aA57K6. There are two vacancies each for these posts and these are full-time based in Delhi. To apply, please send your resume to Sunil Abraham (sunil@cis-india.org) and Pranesh Prakash (pranesh@cis-india.org) with three writing samples of which at least one demonstrates your analytic skills, and one that shows your ability to simplify complex policy issues.

► National Resource Kit Chapter

The Gujarat Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, December 31, 2013): http://bit.ly/Kxbg3b.

Note: All of the chapters published so far in this project are early drafts and will be reviewed and updated.

►Other

# Media Coverage

An “Advocacy” Saga and the Inspiring Legacy of Rahul Cherian (by Shamnad Basheer, Spicy IP, December 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/1a5B7sU.

# Blog Entry

National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility – An Analysis (by Anandhi Viswanathan, December 27, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dfCW3I.

# Submission

Comments on Proposed WIPO Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (by Nehaa Chaudhari, December 7, 2013). CIS submitted its comments to the Ministry of Human Resource Development: http://bit.ly/1hpWeuu.

# Events Participated In

3rd Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest & Open A.I.R. Conference on Innovation and IP in Africa (organized by University of Cape Town, December 9-13, 2013). Sunil Abraham participated as a speaker in the sessions on Bridging into the Global Congress: Global Issues, Local Answers?, User Rights Track: What Medicines Can Teach Tech: Exploring Patent Pooling and Compulsory Licensing in the Indian Mobile Device Market (http://bit.ly/1f74yir), User Rights Track: Reclaiming the World Trade Organisation: A Modest Proposal for a WTO Agreement on the Supply of Global Public Goods (http://bit.ly/1f74yir), and was a keynote speaker on The Freedom Continuum (http://bit.ly/1dH1WEM). Nehaa Chaudhari also participated in this event: http://bit.ly/1bJArFJ.
Twenty-Sixth Session of the Standing Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights (organized by WIPO, Geneva, December 16 – 20, 2013). CIS gave its statement on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives (http://bit.ly/JWnjq7) and on Limitations and Exceptions for Education, Teaching and Research Institutions and Persons with Other Disabilities (http://bit.ly/JWnjq7). Nehaa Chaudhari participated as a speaker. India and the United States introduced 6 proposals on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty: http://bit.ly/1edqvr3.

The following has been done under grant from the Wikimedia Foundation (http://bit.ly/SPqFOl). As part this project (http://bit.ly/X80ELd), we held 3 workshops in the month of December, published a detailed report of key accomplishments of the work done in Konkani Wikipedia, a report on Train the Trainer Program held in the month of October and published an article in DNA.

►Wikipedia

# Article

Telugu Wikipedia completes 10 years (by Rahmanuddin Shaik, DNA, December 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/19OAvUV. The article was edited by Rohini Lakshané.

# Report

CIS-A2K: Work Accomplished on Konkani Wikipedia (by Nitika Tandon, December 31, 2013): http://bit.ly/1l6ttmp. The report throws some light on the work accomplished on Konkani Wikipedia from September to December 2013.

# Blog Entries

First ever Train-the-Trainer Program in India (by Nitika Tandon, December 5, 2013): http://bit.ly/1euwSXt.

The following are videos of participants from the Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization project (jointly organised by CIS-A2K and Goa University) speaking on their experiences with Wikimedia projects.

Priyadarshini Tadkodkar on Konkani language (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hldNM8. We are featuring this here as we didn’t carry this in the last newsletter.
Varsha Kavlekar on Konkani Wikipedia Incubator (by Nitika Tandon, December 12, 2013): http://bit.ly/KmxyFo.
Darshan Kandolkar on Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Process (by Nitika Tandon, December 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cqKyQ2.
Darshana Mandrekar speaks on Konkani Wikipedia (by Nitika Tandon, December 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/1keWyya.
Pooja Tople on Wikimedia Projects (by Nitika Tandon, December 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hlbubU.

# Events Organised

You Too Can Write on Wikipedia! — Training workshop (National Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, December 5, 2013): http://bit.ly/1edmx1z.
Telugu Wikipedia Training Workshop (KBN College, Vijaywada, December 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/1i8ScnL.
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop at Alvas Vishva Nudisiri Virasat (Moodabidre, December 19 – 22, 2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja gave a presentation about Kannada Wikipedia and also conducted a workshop on Kannada Wikipedia as a parallel track. The event was covered by Prajavani (December 22), Hosadigantha (December 22), and Deccan Herald (December 22): http://bit.ly/1dGTBkw.

# Events Co-organised

Wikipedia Orientation Workshop (organised by CIS-A2K and Christ University, Bangalore, December 2, 2013): http://bit.ly/1lrkwEy.
Wikipedia Training Session @ Tiruvur (organised by CIS-A2K and Telugu Wikipedia community, Srivahini College, Tiruvur, December 19, 2013). T. Vishnu Vardhan and Rahmanuddin Shaik conducted the workshop: http://bit.ly/1e3oQX7. It was covered by Andhraprabha (http://bit.ly/1bU5VsQ), Eenadu (http://bit.ly/19fsttf), Sakshi (http://bit.ly/1e3pQdU), and Prajasakthi (http://bit.ly/JJs7ja) on December 19, 2013.

# Event Participated In

A Wikipedia Workshop at IISC (organised by the Assamese Wikipedia community, Bangalore, December 1, 2013). CIS-A2K team and Wikipedian Shiju Alex supported this event: http://bit.ly/1dSutY2.

# Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs for the following media coverage:

A Feature on Telugu Wikipedia (Namaste Telengana Newspaper, December 8, 2013): http://bit.ly/19Yjwj6.
Odisha: Odia Wikipedia reaching 5000 article mark! (Odisha Diary Bureau, December 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dGU2vc.

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Internet Governance
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CIS is doing a project (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) on conducting research on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). So far we have organised seven privacy round-tables and drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill. This month we bring you an analysis on whether Bitcoin can be banned by the government and a blog post on misuse of surveillance powers in India. As part of its project (funded by Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and support from the IDRC) on mapping cyber security actors in South Asia and South East Asia a film DesiSec: Episode 1was screened. We also did an interview with Pranesh Prakash on cyber security. With this we have completed a total of 13 video interviews so far:

# Analysis

Can Bitcoin Be Banned by the Indian Government? (by Vipul Kharbanda, December 24, 2013): http://bit.ly/1lJrnGF.

# Blog Entries

Misuse of Surveillance Powers in India (Case 1) (by Pranesh Prakash, December 6, 2013): http://bit.ly/1donbaJ.
Brochures from Expos on Smart Cards, e-Security, RFID & Biometrics in India (by Maria Xynou, December 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1f714fN.
India’s Identity Crisis (by Malavika Jayaram, December 31, 2013 Internet Monitor Annual Report: Reflections on the Digital World, published by Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society): http://bit.ly/1lTRuuz.

# Upcoming Events

Digital Citizens: Why Cyber Security and Online Privacy are Vital to the Success of Democracy and Freedom of Expression (CIS, Bangalore, January 14, 2014): http://bit.ly/KucEU5. Michael Oghia will give a talk.
CPDP 2014 Reforming Data Protection: The Global Perspective (Brussels, January 22 – 24, 2014): http://bit.ly/KsgCws.
Nullcon Goa Feb 2014 — International Security Conference (organised by Nullcon, Bogmallo Beach Resort, Goa, February 12 – 15, 2014). CIS is one of the sponsors for this event: http://bit.ly/1lrBu5I.

# Events Organised

Big Democracy: Big Surveillance - A talk by Maria Xynou (CIS, Bangalore, December 3, 2013): http://bit.ly/19YnA31.
DesiSec: Episode 1 - Film Release and Screening (CIS, December 11, 2013): http://bit.ly/1lJt2fm.
Legal Issues pertaining to Cloud Computing (NLSIU Campus, Bangalore, December 14-15, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cvcmGq.
Biometrics or Bust? Implications of the UID for Participation and Inclusion (CIS, Bangalore, January 10, 2014). Malavika Jayaram will give a talk: http://bit.ly/1lJZhuK.

# Events Participated In

Convention on Crisis of Capitalism and brazen onslaught on Democracy (organized by INSAF, December 6, 2013). Snehashish Ghosh participated as a speaker: http://bit.ly/1gAxmNy.
International View of the State-of-the-Art of Cryptography and Security and its Use in Practice (IV) (jointly organized by Microsoft Research India, Indian Institute of Science, and Indian Institute of Technology Madras, December 6, 2013). Sunil Abraham was a panellist: http://bit.ly/1eAXl5t.
Technology in Government and Topics in Privacy (organized by Data Privacy Lab, CGIS Cafe, Cambridge Street, Harvard University Campus, December 9, 2013). Malavika Jayaram participated as a speaker on Biometrics in Beta – India's Identity Experiment: http://bit.ly/1bJDqht.
Cyberscholars Working Group at MIT (organized by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, December 12, 2013): Malavika Jayaram made a presentation on Biometrics or Bust - India’s Identity Crisis: http://bit.ly/1eIpHef.
Seventh NLSIR Symposium on “Bridging the Security-Liberty Divide” (organised by National Law School, Bangalore, December 21-22). Chinmayi Arun and Bhairav Acharya were speakers at this event: http://bit.ly/1gjsxYe.

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News & Media Coverage
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CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

MongoDB startup hired by Aadhaar got funds from CIA VC arm (by Lison Joseph, Economic Times, December 3, 2013): http://bit.ly/1f77bRg.
A Three-Way Race Draws Delhi’s Young, and Everyone Else, Out to Vote (by Betwa Sharma, New York Times, December 4, 2013): http://bit.ly/1gAxoFf.
India for UN body to resolve internet governance issues (by Kim Arora, The Times of India, December 5, 2013): http://bit.ly/JWESqe.
Card transactions with Aadhaar validation need more time: experts (by Kirti V. Rao and Moulishree Srivastava, Livemint, December 5, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hq35UL.
Indian government wakes up to risk of Hotmail, Gmail (originally published by AFP, December 7, 2013): http://bit.ly/19LrlOS. This was also mirrored in The Times of India (http://bit.ly/1hpYEJu), Reuters (http://bit.ly/1gaHhZk), Dawn (http://bit.ly/1azuV95), NDTV (http://bit.ly/19Ys7lS), Yahoo News (http://yhoo.it/JCSreE), The Malaysian Insider (http://bit.ly/1eAPAMW) and Asia One Digital (http://bit.ly/JWuw9R). A slightly modified version was published by Silicon India on December 11: http://bit.ly/1gAtzjd.

# Announcement

Pranesh Prakash has been elected as the Asia-Pacific representative to the executive committee of the NonCommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) (part of the Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group, which is in turn part of the Generic Names Supporting Organization, which is in turn part of ICANN): http://bit.ly/KuIVeC.

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Telecom
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Shyam Ponappa, a Distinguished Fellow at CIS is a regular columnist with the Business Standard. The articles published on his blog Organizing India Blogspot is mirrored on our website:

# Newspaper Column

For a Telecom Revival (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, December 4, 2013 and Organizing India Blogspot, December 5, 2013): http://bit.ly/1avRDii.

# Blog Entry

The Conflict of Konigsberg (by Anirudh Sridhar, December 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cEXhhU.

►Making Change Project

# Blog Entries

Tactical Technology: Information is Power? (by Denisse Albornoz, December 26, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cEUrcY.
Tactical Technology: Designing Activism (by Denisse Albornoz, December 27, 2013): http://bit.ly/1a9IuzH.

►Other

# Newspaper Column

Digital Native (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, December 22, 2013): http://bit.ly/1f7mU2P.

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Knowledge Repository on Internet Access
------------------------------------------------------------
CIS in partnership with the Ford Foundation is executing a project to create a knowledge repository on Internet and society. This repository will comprise content targeted primarily at civil society with a view to enabling their informed participation in the Indian Internet and ICT policy space. The repository is available at the Internet Institute website: http://bit.ly/1iQT2UB.

# Upcoming Event

Institute on Internet and Society (organised by Ford Foundation and CIS, Yashada, Pune, February 11-17, 2014): http://bit.ly/180mQi9. Registrations are closed for this event.

# Modules

History of the Internet: Building Conceptual Frameworks (by Nishant Shah, December 31, 2013): http://bit.ly/19WRHLb.
Internet Privacy in India (by Elonnai Hickok, December 31, 2013): http://bit.ly/19SNk6v.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter:https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration:
We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2013-bulletin

An “Advocacy” Saga and the Inspiring Legacy of Rahul Cherian

praskrishna — 2013-12-31T04:51:50Z

For those interested in policy advocacy, the NUJS Law Review has an elaborate paper outlining the tireless advocacy efforts (spanning more than 10 full years) of a bunch of dedicated campaigners who strove valiantly to foster access for the disabled.

The blog post by Shamnad Basheer was published by Spicy IP on December 16, 2013.

Their efforts resulted in the culmination of a newly introduced section 52(1)(zb) to the copyright regime. As many of you know, this is one of the widest possible copyright “disability” exceptions anywhere in the world, providing effectively that any conversion of a copyrighted work to make it more accessible to a disabled person (on a non- profit basis) will not count as a copyright infringement.

One name that stands out and will continue to stand out for all time to come in this advocacy campaign is that of Rahul Cherian, a pioneering crusader for disability rights. Rahul not only led the advocacy campaign that led to this revolutionary copyright exception for India, but also played a stellar role with the WBU (World Blind Union) in helping shape an international treaty on similar lines (the Marrakesh treaty) and bring it to fruition.

Unfortunately, even before the Marrakesh treaty was adopted, Rahul was snatched away from us by a cruel twist of fate. However, his legacy lives on and will continue to guide us for a long time to come. As Lawrence Liang notes in this moving piece: “Rahul leaves behind an important legacy in terms of his work, but a far more important one on how we understand the very idea of a free spirit. His singularity, while irreplaceable, provides us with a vocabulary of thinking of human rights struggles as really a right to the maximum enjoyment of life and doing it with a sense of lightness.”

It may interest you to note that Rahul began his career as an IP attorney with Kurian and Kurian, a Chennai based IP boutique. He later found his true calling in working to improve the lot of the differently-abled. He founded Inclusive Planet, a technology/policy outfit to create technology solutions to redress the book famine (by encouraging sharing of accessible literature) and undertake policy advocacy on behalf of disabled communities.

Disability Advocacy and Indian Copyright Amendment

It was a chance call from Rahul that got me into disability advocacy as well; and in no time, his excitement and passion rubbed off on me. Along with other outstanding disability activists and scholars (prominent amongst them were Prof Sam Taraporewala, Dipendra Manocha, Nirmita Narasimhan, Lawrence Liang, Kanchan Pamnani, Ketan Kothari and Neha Trivedi), we campaigned for a meaningful copyright exception, made representations before the Parliamentary Standing Committee and succeeded in getting this historic amendment through the legislature. All this was possible owing to the stellar support of the government (and in particular the untiring work of GR Raghavender, the copyright registrar and Prof NSG, the governments’ key copyright advisor).

We’ve reflected on this advocacy effort in detail in this NUJS law review special issue dealing with the 2012 copyright amendments. To access other articles in this special issue (which resulted from a copyright conference at NUJS a year or so ago), see here (hold your cursor over the NUJS Volume 5 (Number 4) to get access to all the special issue articles).

Rahul is a co-author of this piece (along with Prof Taraporewala and me), but passed away just as we neared completion, making it his last work of writing/scholarship. We consider ourselves blessed to have been a part of his last writing endeavor. We’re also very grateful to the NUJS law review for dedicating the entire special issue to Rahul’s memory.

Our Paper

For those interested, the abstract of our paper states as below:

“In a momentous development, the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, was amended to introduce one of the most progressive provisions ever in the history of global copyright law. These amendments seek to foster access to copyrighted works for the disabled by providing for the conversion and distribution of copyrighted works without the risk of copyright infringement. It is important to appreciate that these amendments did not emerge overnight. Rather, they were the culmination of more than a decade of advocacy, by a group of dedicated campaigners drawn from a diverse set of stakeholders, including leaders of the disability community, civil society activists and the academia. This paper provides a ringside view of the evolution and progress of the campaign, with its final culmination in the amendment. It tracks the advocacy effort through the lens of ‘new social movements’, and focuses on the need to bring together different stakeholders with complementary skills to achieve shared goals of public interest. Additionally, this paper reflects upon the scope of the amendment, the current international efforts to secure a global treaty on this count and India’s role in shaping it.

The authors of this paper were an integral part of the advocacy campaign and worked extensively with several others to secure the introduction of this critical amendment. Unfortunately upon completion of this paper, we lost the most committed campaigner of all, Rahul Cherian. This paper is dedicated to his memory and the boundless passion and enthusiasm with which he brought so many of us together in his quest for creating a better world for the disabled. Over the last few years, Rahul worked tirelessly to champion the cause of the disabled in India and achieved commendable progress on several fronts. However, the copyright amendment will rate as his crowning glory, given the rather difficult political terrain that had to be traversed. Rahul is to be credited for providing a fresh fillip to the advocacy campaign and mediating differences between a diverse set of people with different skill sets, ideologies and expectations and ensuring that they worked together as ‘one’ team with a common goal.”

Rahul’s journey is far from over. Though we’ve lost him physically, his energy, spirit and infectious enthusiasm will continue to inspire many of us who struggle in our own little way to make this planet more inclusive, habitable and humane.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/spicy-ip-december-16-2013-shamnad-basheer-an-advocacy-saga-and-inspiring-legacy-rahul-cherian

National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility – An Analysis

anandi — 2013-12-27T07:49:47Z

Electronics and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are widely used in all areas of life such as education, health care, employment, entertainment, banking and finance management and other aspects of daily living.

They not only make life easier for people in general, but have the potential to revolutionise the lives of persons with disabilities through larger inclusion and participation in these areas and by enabling independent living through use of appropriate assistive technologies (ATs).

In the year 2010, the erstwhile Department of Information Technology, Government of India circulated a draft consultation paper on the National Policy for Electronic Accessibility that sought to regulate the provision of accessible Electronics and ICTs services and products and universal design concepts for persons with disabilities. Post consultation and deliberation, the Government of India has passed the National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility (National Policy) in 2013. This is a brief analysis of the policy and the provisions therein.

The draft consultation paper had clearly identified the requirements of persons with disabilities that had to be kept in view while designing electronic accessibility solutions:

Eliminating discrimination on the basis of disabilities and facilitating equal access to Information and Communication Technologies and Electronics (ICTE)
Understanding the diversity of persons with disabilities and creating solutions for their specific needs
Ensuring that accessibility standards and guidelines and universal design concepts are adopted and adhered to.

While the draft consultation paper only sought to provide equal access to ICTE products and services to persons with disabilities, the objective of the National Policy has been expanded to include not just equal but also barrier free access. The category of disabilities has also been expanded to include mental disabilities. Further, the policy seeks to facilitate local language support and sync universal access with barrier free access that should be usable without adaptation.

The scope of the National Policy continues to cover access to ICTE products and services to persons with disabilities in the areas of universal design, assistive technologies and independent living aids as in the draft consultation paper, but the National Policy expands on the broad roles and functions of the major stakeholders.

The National Policy clearly defines the following points that were not discussed in the Draft Consultation Paper:

The Department of Electronics and Technology is named as the nodal authority for monitoring the implementation of the policy.
Recommends constitution of a high level advisory committee of multiple stakeholders – central and state. ministries and department, industry, academia, disabled persons organisations and persons with disabilities for guiding and implementing the policy.
Recommends an amendment in the Information Technology (IT) Act to protect persons with disabilities who inadvertently break the law.
Lays emphasis on providing support in local languages to accessible Electronics and ICTs.

The strategy and Action Plan defined in the Draft Consultation Paper have been augmented and restructured to include the following points described in the National Policy:

Creating awareness on universal electronics accessibility and universal design

The National Policy specifically provides that the Department of Electronics and Information Technology will play the lead role.
Other central and state ministries, departments and agencies will also be responsible.
Carried out through Media, campaigns, conferences, workshops and seminars.
Will also include available and emerging assistive technologies and independent living aids and schemes.
Information to be made available in public domain in local languages in accessible format.

Capacity building and Infrastructure Development

The National Policy requires that schemes for capacity building on accessibility and assistive technologies be taken up within the government and for persons with disabilities.

Education and Assistive Technologies Centres

Accessibility standards and guidelines and universal design concepts to be included in the curriculum of Electronics and ICTs education.
Assistive technologies and independent living aids to be included in the curriculum of Special Education and Rehabilitation.
Model Electronics and ICTs centres to be set up to provide training and demonstration to special educators and persons with disabilities including persons with mental disabilities.

Conducting research and development

To develop assistive technologies and independent living aids based on accessibility standards and guidelines and universal design concepts
To provide incentives for the research and development of such products
To formulate schemes to support research and development organisations for developing such products
To include persons with disabilities and rehabilitation professionals in formulation, implementation and monitoring the schemes.

Accessibility Standards

The draft consultation paper provides that the accessibility standards and guidelines be taken or modified from existing standards and guidelines in accessibility
The National Policy specifically names existing accessibility standards and guidelines such as the following as examples

W3C Accessibility Standards
ATAG (Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines)
WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
UAAG (User Agent Accessibility Guidelines)

Accessibility compliance would be monitored for government websites, websites for disability issues, general citizen centric websites and important websites with high traffic or high consumer transaction.

Accessible format for content

Content published in electronic format including text books, journals, publications, multimedia etc are required to be published in accessible format
Support in local languages to be provided for all content

Developing programmes and schemes

The National Policy lays emphasis on schemes for women and children with disabilities

Developing procurement guidelines for Electronics and ICTs for accessibility and assistive needs

The draft Consultation Paper merely states that ICTE procurement guidelines and processes should include accessibility standards and guidelines.
The National Policy requires that Electronics and ICTs procurement policies be evolved to confirm to the requirements of the National Policy.
Higher cost of accessibility compliant hardware and software to be budgeted for at procurement.
Incentives to be provided by the government to assist with the procurement of such products.
Any scheme formulated by the central or state governments for persons with disabilities should be linked with ongoing schemes for universal electronic accessibility.

Affordable Access

The Draft Consultation Paper requires that schemes be formulated to provide access to ICTE services and products to persons with disabilities at affordable costs.
Information about these schemes to be made available in the public domain in local languages in accessible format.
The National Policy promotes open source usage to meet affordable access requirements.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-policy-on-universal-electronic-accessibility-analysis

National Resource Kit: The Chhattisgarh Chapter (Revised)

anandi — 2014-02-12T06:48:05Z

The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Chhattisgarh.

The chapter was revised based on the feedback and comments received from our readers.

The Department of Social Welfare is responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities in Chhattisgarh. The state has an estimated population of 419,887[1] persons with disabilities in a total population of 25,545,198[2] people. Chhattisgarh has issued one scheme under General Entitlements, one scheme under Women and Children with Disabilities, three schemes under Education, two schemes under Skill Development and Employment, three schemes under Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation & Recreation and one scheme under Schemes & Grants for Organisations & Individuals for Disabilities.

1. General Entitlements

1.1 The Gharonda scheme provides persons with disabilities above the age of 18 years accommodation in government shelter homes throughout their lifetime.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Department of Social Welfare		Gharonda Scheme: Life-time accommodation in govt shelter hones Age above 18 years BPL category

2. Women and Children with Disabilities

2.1 The Gharonda (Aashraya Griha) Yojna provides accommodation in government shelter homes to children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Department of Social Welfare		Gharonda (Aashraya Griha) Yojna: Accommodation in govt shelter homes for children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental retardation & multiple disabilities Age up to 18 years

3. Education

3.1 Scholarship is provided to students with disabilities. Reader allowance is provided to students with visual impairment.

3.2 The Samarthya Vikas Yojna scheme provides students with disabilities scientific equipment and laboratory apparatus.

3.3 A braille press has been set up to provide study material / learning aids for students with visual impairment. Residential schools have been established for children with disabilities that provide food, clothing and shelter in addition to education and training.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Details
1	Social Welfare Department	Scholarship and reader allowance for disabled students Primary / Pre-matriculation / Secondary / Senior Secondary – Rs. 50 to Rs. 240 per month (based on class) Reader allowance – Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per month (based on class)
2	Social Welfare Department	Samarthya Vikas Yojna Scheme: Scientific equipment and laboratory apparatus for disabled students
3	Social Welfare Department	Establishment of Braille press Establishment of residential schools for disabled children

4. Skill Development and Employment

4.1 The Chhattisgarh Nishaktjan Vitan & Vikas Nigam provides loans with low interest rates to persons with disabilities for starting their own businesses.

4.2 The Uthan Subsidy Yojna is a scheme for persons with disabilities availing loans for self-employment. The government provides 50 per cent subsidy on the remaining loan if the disabled person pays all the instalments regularly for three years.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Welfare Department		Nishaktjan Vitan & Vikas Nigam: Loans at low interest rates for starting business
2	Social Welfare Department		Uthan Subsidy Yojna Scheme: For loans taken for self employment 50% subsidy on remaining loan by govt if all instalments paid regularly for three years

5. Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation and Recreation

5.1   The Indira Gandhi Viklang Pension Yojna is a pension scheme for persons with disabilities.

5.2   The Indira Gandhi Vridhawastha Pension Yojna is an old age pension scheme that covers everyone above the age of 65 years including persons with disabilities.

5.3   The Nishaktjan Vivah Yojna is a marriage scheme that provides assistance for marriage for persons with disabilities.

5.4 Chhattisgarh provides assistive devices like hearing aids, callipers, wheelchairs, tricycles and Braille writing equipment to persons with disabilities.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Details
1	Social Welfare Department	Indira Gandhi Viklang Pension Scheme: Disability pension Pension – Rs. 200 per month Age between 18 – 64 years Total family income should not exceed Rs. 10,000 per annum Disability 80% or more / multiple disabilities
2	Social Welfare Department	Indira Gandhi Vridhawastha Pension Scheme: Disability pension for disabled senior citizens Pension – Rs. 300 per month Age above 65 years Should belong to BPL category
3	Social Welfare Department	Nishaktjan Vivah Yojna Scheme: Marriage assistance for disabled persons Grant – Rs. 21,000 Women: Age between 18 – 45 years Men: Age between 21 – 45 years
4	Social Welfare Department	Provision of assistive devices such as hearing aids, callipers, wheelchairs, tricycles and Braille slates

6. Accessibility

6.1 The government of Chhattisgarh is yet to implement schemes and policies under accessibility.

7. Certification

7.1 Chief Medical Officer of each district is the issuing authority for disability certificates. Parents / guardians may submit application on behalf of children / persons with mental disabilities

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Welfare Department		Application for disability certificates CMO of each district is issuing authority Application also to govt doctors treating disabled person Documents required: Proof of residence 2 Passport size photographs

8. Schemes & Grants for Organisations & Individuals for Disabilities

8.1 Voluntary organisations for persons with disabilities in the field of education are granted funds for their activities and given certification by the government.

Sr. No.	Issuing Authority	Notification No.	Details
1	Social Welfare Department		Certification and funding for voluntary organisations for education

9. Disability Authorities

Chhattisgarh has two authorities responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities:

Department of Social Welfare
Commissioner for Disabilities.

[1]. http://socialjustice.nic.in/statewisedisabled.php

[2]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhattisgarh

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-chhattisgarh-chapter-revised

November 2013 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-01-04T04:38:08Z

Our newsletter for the month of November 2013 can be accessed below.

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcomes you to the eleventh issue of its newsletter (November) for the year 2013:

Highlights

CIS is pleased to announce the second "Institute on Internet and Society" to be held in Yashada, Pune from February 11 to 17, 2014. Any members from the civil society (students, research scholars, academicians, scientists, legal professionals, etc.) who engage in issues concerning Internet and Society are encouraged to apply.
The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research for the states of Tripura, Nagaland and Chattisgarh.
CIS-A2K team signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Christ University in Bangalore to introduce Wikipedia in classrooms.
The Access to Knowledge narrative report capturing the work done by CIS-A2K team in the first ten months of the grant along with its strategy for the next 1 year is published.
Last month we organised the Seventh Privacy Round-table in collaboration with FICCI, DSCI, and Privacy International in Delhi. The developments are captured in a report by Elonnai Hickok.
Along with Wikimedia India and Acharya Narendra Dev College, we organised the Relaunch of Creative Commons in India. Dr. Shashi Tharoor was the chief guest.

Accessibility and Inclusion

As part of our project (under a grant from the Hans Foundation) on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India, we bring you draft chapters for the states of Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, and the union territory of Daman and Diu. With this we have completed compilation of draft chapters for 27 states and 5 union territories. Feedback and comments are invited from readers for the following chapters:

► National Resource Kit Chapter

The Tripura Chapter (by CLPR, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bCFPwq.
The Nagaland Chapter (by CLPR, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cmKzq0.
The Chattisgarh Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cSczSt.

Note: All of these are early drafts and will be reviewed and updated.

► Other Accessibility Update

# Events Participated In

E-Accessibility Workshop 2013 (organised by Directorate of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra, Mahaonline Limited and National Internet Exchange of India, November 19-20, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cQ0wd8. CIS was one of the trainer organisations for the event.
National Conference on Harnessing Technology for the Empowerment for Persons with Visual Impairments (organized by NAB Centre for Blind Women & Disability Studies, Indian Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi, November 19, 2013). Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan participated as a speaker: http://bit.ly/IzLOty.

Access to Knowledge

The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers and human rights, and critically examines Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, and Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software.

The following has been done under grant from the Wikimedia Foundation (http://bit.ly/SPqFOl). As part this project (http://bit.ly/X80ELd), we held 8 workshops, signed a MoU with Christ University for teaching Wikipedia to students, published a detailed narrative report of activities done during the initial period of the Wikimedia grant.

►Wikipedia

# Articles

ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಟ್ಟ ಸಸಿಗೆ ಈಗ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷ (by Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Kannada Prabha, November 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/17LOw4O. The article highlights 10 years of Kannada Wikipedia, the current status of the Kannada Wikipedia vis-a-vis number of articles, number of editors, active editors, and page views per month.
Train The Trainer Programme for Wikipedians (by Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, November 14, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ehr8kz. The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane of DNA.

# Announcement

CIS Signs MoU with Christ University, Bangalore (November 20, 2013): The Access to Knowledge team signed a MoU as part of which CIS-A2K and Christ University will impart Wikipedia education in Indian classrooms: http://bit.ly/1ehr8kz.

# Report

CIS-A2K Narrative Report (September 2012 – June 2013) (by T. Vishnu Vardhan, Nitika Tandon and Subhashish Panigrahi, November 29, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dFyjpO. The report throws some light on the CIS-A2K program strategy in the next one year.

# Blog Entries

Note: A couple of the below blog entries were carried in the Access to Knowledge newsletter last month.

Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project (by Nitika Tandon, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dodyuK.
Konkani Vishwakosh Under CC-BY-SA (by Nitika Tandon, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cm9wBH.
Train the Trainer Program (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/18hjw0n.

# Event Co-organised

The Relaunch of Creative Commons India (co-organised by Wikimedia India, Acharya Narendra Dev College and CIS, India Islamic Cultural Centre, November 12, 2013): http://bit.ly/HPxrAO. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development was the chief guest at the event.

# Events Organised

Wikipedia Orientation Programme for MA Students (Christ University, Bangalore, November 12, 2013): http://bit.ly/ItxAtu. Syed Muzammiluddin was the trainer. Twenty students participated.
Wikipedia Orientation Programme for the Second Language Students (Christ University, Bangalore, November 12, 13, 16 and 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bxsOYF. T. Vishnu Vardhan, Syed Muzammiluddin and Dr. U.B.Pavanaja were the trainers. About 1200 second language students participated in the programme.
Documentation and Wikipedia Contribution — A One Day Workshop (Kalinga Institute of Social Studies, Bhubaneswar, November 14, 2013). The workshop was conducted by Subhashish Panigrahi: http://bit.ly/1fSvl1v.
Documentation and Wikipedia Workshop (Kalinga School of Management, Bhubaneswar, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/Imf0DV. Subhashish Panigrahi conducted the workshop.
Konknni Wikipedia Workshop (organised by Dalgado Konknni Akademi and CIS-A2K, Goa Central State Library, November 16 and 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSwiH5.
Tenth Anniversary of Wikipedia (H N Multimedia Hall, National College, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1eJ6da9. Dr. U R Ananthamurthy, Prof. G. Venkatasubbiah and Ravi Hegde were the guests of honour. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
First Phase of Odia Wikipedia Workshop (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Bhubaneswar, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/18doDer. Subhashish Panigrahi conducted the workshop.
Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (Nirmala Institute of Education, Goa, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSAUwT. Nitika Tandon conducted the event.

# Event Participated In

Wikimedia Diversity Conference (organized by German Wikipedia Community, GLS Campus, Berlin): http://bit.ly/Ixr9W8.

# Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs for the following media coverage:

Kannada Wikipedia and its Tenth Anniversary (RadioCity, November 2, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dHEwBI.
10th anniversary of Kannada wikipedia (The Times of India, November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/IxqDr7.
Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia (Udayavani, November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/1aFwqF1.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ. ಅದರ ಪ್ರಯುಕ್ತ ಒಂದು ಆಚರಣೆ (Avadhi Website, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/ImiBSy.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗೆ 10, ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಸಾಲದು : ಪ್ರೊ .ಜಿವಿ (OneindiaKannada, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSAUwT.
Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia (Vijayavani, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1b7exSa.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ (Prajavani, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hWtt9v.
ಕನ್ನಡದ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ದುರ್ಬಲ (Vijaya Karnataka, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hWtsCy.
Panaji: DKA organizes two day Konkani Wikipedia workshop (Daijiworld, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1inoi03.

Note: The following are not a part of the Wikimedia Grant:

► Other

# Blog Entries

History of Creative Commons in India (by Priyank Dwivedi, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/17txcH7.
How Can We Make Open Education Truly Open? (by Dr. Nishant Shah, DML Central, November 22, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ezsAyj.

# Events Participated In

Conference on e-Governance for India: Opportunities, Challenges and Policy Alternatives (organised by OECD Korea Policy Centre in partnership with the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad, November 6-7, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cGP13c. Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session on OECD Principles on eGovernment and their applicability to the developing world and India.
Indo-European Conference on the Role of the Patent System in Fostering Innovation and Technology Transfer (organized by European Patent Office, FICCI and European Business & Technology Centre, November 29, 2013, New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in this conference.

Internet Governance

CIS is doing a project (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) on conducting research on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). So far we have organised seven privacy round-tables and drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill. This month we bring you a report from the seventh privacy round-table held in Delhi, and an analysis on why Facebook is more dangerous than government spying. As part of its project (funded by Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and support from the IDRC) on mapping cyber security actors in South Asia and South East Asia we did an interview with Namita A Malhotra, a researcher and lawyer from Alternative Law Forum. With this we have completed a total of 12 video interviews:

►Privacy

# Event Report

Seventh Privacy Round-table (organised by FICCI, DSCI, Privacy International and CIS, October 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/187pFOO. The report was published in the month of November.

# Newspaper Columns

Open Secrets (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, October 27, 2013): http://bit.ly/1b5uvK0.
I Just Pinged to Say Hello (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, November 24, 2013): http://bit.ly/183H34t.

# Blog Entries

An Interview with Caspar Bowden (by Maria Xynou, November 6, 2013): http://bit.ly/17LQqFX.
India's Response to WGEC Questionnaire (by Snehashish Ghosh, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/HX0r96.
Why 'Facebook' is More Dangerous than the Government Spying on You (by Maria Xynou, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/HWLFzi.
CIS Supports the UN Resolution on “The Right to Privacy in the Digital age” (by Elonnai Hickok, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1c2A89q.

# Events Organised

IDEX Impact Assessment Workshop (organised by IDEX, CIS, Bangalore, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bxRfFm.
The Evolving Cyber Threat and How to Address It (CIS, Bangalore, November 22, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cEkUZY.
Panel on Privacy, Surveillance & the UID in the post-Snowden era (Institution of Agricultural Technologists, Bangalore, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ctSHW3.

# Events Participated In

Chances and Risks of Social Participation (organised by Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Berlin, November 22, 2013). Dr. Nishant Shah gave the keynote: http://bit.ly/18PcMXN.
Expert Committee Meeting on Human DNA Profiling Bill (organised by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, New Delhi). Sunil Abraham participated in the meeting: http://bit.ly/19CpDbD.

# Upcoming Event

Big Democracy: Big Surveillance - A Talk by Maria Xynou (CIS, Bangalore, December 3, 2013): http://bit.ly/1j4mzgu.

► Cyber Security

Laird Brown, a strategic planner and writer with core competencies on brand analysis, public relations and resource management and Purba Sarkar who in the past worked as a strategic advisor in the field of SAP Retail are working in this project:

# Video Interview

Part 12: An Interview with Namita A. Malhotra (November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/1j8MCjN.

# Documentary Film

First Look: Cyber Security Film (by Purba Sarkar, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1alHhVu. The trailer was presented by Laird Brown recently at the IGF.

# Upcoming Event

DesiSec: Episode 1 - Film Release and Screening (December 11, 2013): Screening of the first documentary film on cyber security in India.

News & Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

EC guidelines on social media: Welcome move, but not enough (by Shruti Dhapola, FirstPost, November 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/1c3fNkt.
NSA leaks helping India become 'Big Brother' state? (British Broadcasting Corporation, November 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/1b7ftDG.
Spy agencies, IB and RAW, put spanner in proposed privacy law (by Nagender Sharma and Aloke Tikku, Hindustan Times, November 2, 2013): http://bit.ly/1aox4HP.
India must support UN's e-snooping move: Human rights activists (by Indu Nandakumar, Economic Times, November 11, 2013): http://bit.ly/18LrI5s.
Social media promotions can backfire, too (by Ratna Bhushan and Varuni Khosla, The Times of India, November 11, 2013): http://bit.ly/1gMj7rg.
YouTube is the answer to what has changed in India (by Moulishree Srivastava, Livemint, November 20, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fg214A.
When the virtual world wakes up the real one (by Malini Nair, November 24, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hovyd3.

Digital Natives

CIS is doing a research project titled “Making Change”. The project will explore new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, the project will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia.:

► Making Change

# Blog Entries

Methods to Conceive and Condense Social Change (by Denisse Albornoz, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ezrBhw.
Blank Noise and the Active Citizen Dissonance (by Denisse Albornoz, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/IwOHu9.

► Other

# Blog Entry

Digitally Enhanced Civil Resistance (by Denisse Albornoz, November 20, 2013): http://bit.ly/18ndc7p.

Telecom

Shyam Ponappa, a Distinguished Fellow at CIS is a regular columnist with the Business Standard. The articles published on his blog Organizing India Blogspot is mirrored on our website:

► Newspaper Column

Predictability in Infrastructure (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, November 6, 2013 and Observer India Blogspot, November 10, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dLZ0Fp.

Knowledge Repository on Internet Access

CIS in partnership with the Ford Foundation is executing a project to create a knowledge repository on Internet and society. This repository will comprise content targeted primarily at civil society with a view to enabling their informed participation in the Indian Internet and ICT policy space. The repository is available at the Internet Institute website: http://bit.ly/1iQT2UB.

►Upcoming Event

Institute on Internet and Society (organised by Ford Foundation and CIS, Yashada, Pune, February 11-17, 2014): http://bit.ly/180mQi9. The application form is available at http://internet-institute.in/form. Registrations close on December 15, 2013.

► Modules

Internet Engineering Task Force (by Anirudh Sridhar, November 30, 2013). The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an open standards body with no requirements for membership and does not have a formal membership process either: http://bit.ly/1c4aOQr.
World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) (by Anirudh Sridhar, November 30, 2013). The World Summit on Information Society was first proposed by the International Telecommunication Union in 1998. The main focus of the WSIS was to address issues related to the global digital divide. However, the scope of the WSIS was broadened later to include internet related public policy issues: http://bit.ly/186dbnV.

Digital Humanities

CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:

► Event Participated In

From Seemingly Transparent to Definitely Opaque (organised by University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, November 4-7, 2013): http://bit.ly/19b6IW1. Nishant Shah taught this course and also presented on a panel on 'Secrets of Digital Culture'.

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us

► Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2013-bulletin

National Conference on: Harnessing technology for the empowerment for the persons with visual impairments

praskrishna — 2014-02-03T10:38:53Z

Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan participates as a speaker at this event. The event is organized by NIVH.

Click to read the complete agenda published by NAB Centre for Blind Women & Disability Studies

Background Note

As we all are aware, Assistive Technolgy has played an unprecedented role in equalizing opportunities and in improving the quality of life of people with disabilities in last few years, with solutions helping in the elimination of barriers in all kinds of environments.

However, inspite of the advanced development, the Assistive technology for the VI has been confined to special devices leading mostly to disparate solutions. These devices also are most often rendered incompatible with the quickly changing technological landscape interfacing with all sectors of development, making it unaffordable or obsolete for people with disabilities to communicate with the highly digital and networked society in the contemporary world. This disparity further isolates the disabled population calling out for a more holistic approach to make the mainstream technology accessible from the designing stage.

Moreover, increasingly all services in every sphere of life, be it employment, education, communication, entertainment, civic participation, or government functions are moving either primarily or exclusively online worldwide.

While for PWDs, the Internet has a great potential to enhance their freedom to access goods, services and information independently through online services; a sizeable population of people especially with visual impairment are increasingly finding it difficult to access online services and information due to design barriers. This is becoming an alarmingly serious issue in the near future, considering the engagement of vital sectors like banking and publications with technology.

We already face a rate of unemployment that is more than 3 times as high as the rest of the population and experience similar gaps in educational achievement. High levels of inaccessibility on the Web and Internet-enabled mobile technologies are threatening to exclude people with visual impairment even further, who experience disability from the information society.

The potential of an accessible Internet is immense which could not only increase the inclusion of people with disabilities and facilitate online education, telework, participation in e-government, but also would enable social relationships that overcome barriers and challenges presented by the physical world.

We are, therefore, in a situation of necessity, to harness the enormous prospects of technology to create an empowering, economically progressive and inclusive society, with a new approach to implement the public policy to eliminate the virtual barriers that are in place, ensuring that people with disabilities are not marginalized.

The need of the hour is to develop an accessible technology plan to

Define the accessible technology strategy,
Identify requirements,
Design, develop, and purchase technology,
Implement and Train in a timely manner

The national conference on ` Harnessing technology for the empowerment for the persons with visual impairments’ being organised by the NIVH, a premier Institute of Government of India in the field of visual disability functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment to be held on 19th Nov 2013 aims to create opportunities of exploring the potential of inclusive solutions which are designed to serve all people regardless of their physical abilities.

The conference would bring together best practices models from India and abroad. It would facilitate interaction between the inclusive design experts for online services & accessible information and the officials from all levels of government and PSUs. The conference will in particular address the problems and potential solutions with reference to access to banking services, web and online services, access to documents and publications in digital, Braille and audio formats, and access to Digital Television
On the sidelines of the conference, a small exhibition will display a range of products hardware and software rendering possible solutions.

It is understood that all the participants invited to this conference have a critical role in the implementation of legal commitments and policy decisions for creating an accessible, enabling and empowering environment in which people can access all the services and information intended to benefit all citizens of the country.

Draft agenda

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.: Registration
9:30 a.m.- 10:20 a.m.: Inaugural Session
9:30 a.m.: Felicitations
9:36 a.m.: Lighting of Lamp followed by a devotional song
9:40 a.m.: Welcome address by J.S. DDA and objectives of the Conference
9:45 a.m.: Address by Secy. DDA
9:55 a.m.: Key Note address
10:15 a.m.: Vote of Thanks by Director NIVH
10:20-10:40 a.m.: Tea Break
10.40 a.m.: Plenary Session 1
11.40 a.m.: Plenary Session 2
2.15 p.m.: Plenary Session 3
4.00 p.m.: Plenary Session 4

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/nabcentreforwomen-november-19-2013-national-conference-on-harnessing-technology-for-the-empowerment-for-the-persons-with-visual-impairments

National Resource Kit: The Tripura Chapter (Call for Comments)

CLPR — 2013-11-13T09:58:16Z

The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Tripura.

Note: The chapter is an early draft and will undergo subsequent modifications. We welcome comments and feedback from our readers.

Executive Summary

In February 2008, Tripura was ranked to be the second among the North eastern states in their implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.

Quick Statistics

Capital: Agartala
Population (2011): 3,671,032
People with disabilities (2000): 58,940
Literacy: 87.75%

Legal Provisions

The Government of Tripura has not implemented any state specific legislation and has enforced the following schemes under the Department of Social Welfare:

Accessibility

Free bus pass for persons with disabilities are given for travel on the State Transport Buses

Aids and Appliances
There is no State Government scheme for provision of aids and appliances. The Central Government Assistance to Disabled Persons Scheme (ADIP) has distributed funds to the state of Tripura for implementation. [1]

Education

Educational Institutions: 2 seats are reserved in each industrial training Institutes. A special residential school is set up in the State with modern Instruments for the hearing and speech impaired students.
In 2009, the Tripura government planned on introducing a home-based education program (HBEP) for children with disabilties who were unable to attend schools, in lieu of governmental measures to train teachers and equip schools with adequate infrastructure for disabled students.
Scholarship/Stipend: Scholarship is given to different category of students with disabilities from Class I to Class VIII. The details are as follows:

Rs.70/– p.m. to Rs.95/– p.m. – For blind and hearing impaired.
Rs.60/– p.m. to Rs.80/– p.m. – For other categories of handicapped
Students of Class IX to University level also get scholarship up to the maximum of Rs.240/– p.m. depending on the class/course. Scholarship is also given to the students with disablties for doing music course, vocational course, technical course and professional course.[2]

Employment

Reservation in Government Job: 3% jobs in Class III and Class IV posts are reserved for the persons with disabilities
Age Relaxation: Upper age limit is relaxed by 5 yrs for persons with disabilties for applying in Government Jobs.
Conveyance Allowance: Conveyance allowance up to Rs.50/– p.m. is given to the employees with disabilities belonging Grade ‘C’ and ‘D’.
Assistance for self-employment: Persons with disabilities get assistance for self-employment from the State Government.

Social Protection

Incentive for Marrying disabled: Incentive to the tune of Rs.5000/– for the marriage to a person with disabilities is given by the Social Welfare Department of the State Government.
Five persons in each of the 956 Gram Panchayats, 9 Nagar Panchayats and each ward of the municipality area (Agartala Municipality) are being given pension at the rate of Rs.100/–p.m.[3]

Miscellaneous

Tripura has a web based application called Physically Challenged Persons Information System (PCPIS) which issues disability certificates to physically challenged persons on the day of their medical checkup; captures details like personal information, education and employment information along with their image and fingerprint; as well as a record of the state assistance they make use of (scholarship, stipend for the complete blind, travelling allowance, etc.) and a record of the appliances issued to the person by the District Disability Rehabilitation Centre.

[1]. http://www.tripurastat.com/socialandwelfareschemes/27/disabledscheme/369478/stats.aspx

[2]. http://www.tripurastat.com/socialandwelfareschemes/27/disabledscheme/369478/stats.aspx

[3]. http://tsu.trp.nic.in/src/AboutSRC3.htm, http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/disablity_india_statistical_data_11mar2011/Appendix%201%20Tables.pdf

[4]. http://www.tripurastat.com/socialandwelfareschemes/27/disabledscheme/369478/stats.aspx

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-tripura-chapter

National Resource Kit: The Nagaland Chapter (Call for Comments)

CLPR — 2013-11-13T09:58:56Z

The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Nagaland.

Note: The chapter is an early draft and will undergo subsequent modifications. We welcome comments and feedback from our readers.

Executive Summary

The Department of Social Security and Welfare is the wing under the State Government of Nagaland that is responsible for the schemes for persons with disabilities. The Nagaland Parents Association for the Disabled (NAPAD), an NGO, have alleged that the schemes introduced by the State Government are yet to be implemented within the State.

Quick Statistics

Capital: Kohima
Population: 1,980,602 (as per 2011 census)
People with disabilities: 26,499 (2001 census)
Literacy: 80.11%

Legal Provisions

There is no state specific legislation for persons with disabilities. The Government of Nagaland has implemented the following schemes:

Aids and Appliances
In February 2009, the Union Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment through its Assistance to Disabled Persons (ADIP) scheme allocated Rs. 37 lakhs to eight districts of Nagaland to provide aids and appliances to disabled persons. Those with a monthly family income under Rs. 6500 are provided appliances free of cost, while those up to Rs. 10000 receive a 50% subsidy.

Accessibility

Free bus travel on State Transport buses is provided for people with locomotor disabilities.
Visually impaired passengers with escorts also get free transport in State Transport Buses.

Education

Students with disabilities from Class I to IV are provided with Rs. 35 per month, while Class V to VIII are provided with Rs. 50 a month. This is provided under the State Government Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.
A grant is also provided to students with disabilities undergoing training in typing.

Employment

Reservation of Government Jobs: 5% of all positions listed in the Schedule to No. AR-3/Gen-9/97 is reserved for persons with disabilities. Of this 5%, 1% will be reserved for the categories of blindness, low vision, hearing impairment, loco motor disability and cerebral palsy (in this order).
The upper age limit for jobs in Public Service and Public Undertakings is relaxed by five years for persons with disabilities by Order no. AR-8/27/76 dated 10/8/1977.
By the recommendation of the Nagaland Department of Social Welfare, the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation sanctioned a loan of Rs. 50,000 each to 499 people (in 2012) to take up trades such as grocery selling, vegetable gardening/vending, raising pigs, poultry, tailoring, handicrafts, etc.

Health and Rehabilitation

There is no State Government scheme for health and rehabilitation. Under the Rashtriya Gramin Punarvas Yojana, scheme of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, a District Fitment Centre catering to all persons with disabilities has been established in one district.

Social Protection

As of October 2012, 200 completely blind people were provided with financial assistance of Rs. 200 per month under the State Government Welfare Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.
Under the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme, the department provides a monthly pension of Rs. 200 to persons with severe disabilities of 18 years and older, of which there were 1276 beneficiaries as of October 2012 in Nagaland
Physically disabled persons also receive Rs. 60 per month as a disability pension under the State Government Welfare Scheme for Persons with disabilities.
Aged persons with disabilities without relatives or family have access to a state-sponsored home.

Sources

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-nagaland-chapter

Puducherry (Govt.) Schemes

praskrishna — 2013-11-13T09:06:04Z

Details of the Scheme in respect of differently-abled division of Social Welfare Department, Puducherry can be viewed below.

Grant of Incentive for marriage between differently-abled persons and normal person
Grant of incentive for marriage between differently-abled persons
Grant of Fuel Subsidy to differently-abled person persons who are owning motorized vehicles
Grant of Financial assistance to differently-abled person
Award of Scholarship to differently-abled person students
Incentive for Eye Donors
Reimbursement of maintenance cost of Tricycles
Supply of sarees and dhotis to differently-abled person persons
State Award for the Welfare of the Handicapped
Supply of Prosthetic Appliances to Differently-abled persons
Issue of free Bus pass to differently-abled person
Annual Tour for differently-abled persons
International day for the differently-abled person
Group Insurance for differently-abled person government employees
Insurance Scheme for person with disabilities other than the employees of Govt. of Pondicherry 2004
The Perunthalaivar Karmaveerar Kamaraj scheme for financial assistance towards funeral expenses of the differently- abled persons
Supply on invalid carriages (motorized tricycles) to the persons with disabilities
Supply of Musical/Sports items to PH welfare associations
Issue of Identity cards to differently-abled persons
Grant of Transport Allowance to Differently-abled persons
Supply of Radio to the Blind Person

Click to download the file received from the Government of Puducherry

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/puducherry-govt-schemes

Centre for Internet and Society

National Resource Kit : The Haryana Chapter (Revised)

Introduction

National Resource Kit: The Dadra & Nagar Haveli Chapter (Call for Comments)

Executive Summary

National Resource Kit: The Mizoram Chapter (Call for Comments)

The Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2013 and the Lack of Access to Accessibility Rights

January 2014 Bulletin

National Resource Kit: The Gujarat Chapter (Call for Comments)

Executive Summary

General Entitlements

Women and Children with Disabilities

Education

Skill Development & Employment

Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation and Recreation

Accessibility

Certification

Schemes & Grants for Organisations & Individuals for Disabilities

Disability Authorities

December 2013 Bulletin

An “Advocacy” Saga and the Inspiring Legacy of Rahul Cherian

Disability Advocacy and Indian Copyright Amendment

Our Paper

National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility – An Analysis

National Resource Kit: The Chhattisgarh Chapter (Revised)

November 2013 Bulletin

Highlights

National Conference on: Harnessing technology for the empowerment for the persons with visual impairments

Background Note

Draft agenda

National Resource Kit: The Tripura Chapter (Call for Comments)

Executive Summary

Legal Provisions

Accessibility

National Resource Kit: The Nagaland Chapter (Call for Comments)

Executive Summary

Legal Provisions

Accessibility

Education

Employment

Health and Rehabilitation

Social Protection

Puducherry (Govt.) Schemes

Contents