Centre for Internet and Society

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

Manojna Yeluri — 2013-11-07T06:17:18Z

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 Rajasthan.

The 2001 Census revealed that in Rajasthan 2.5% of the population consisted of disabled persons. During the same year, the Rajasthan Government conducted a door to door survey in order to categorize the disabilities according to the seven categories listed in the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. Among the disabled, the highest number of 53.4 % was persons with visual impairment. Rajasthan also has 6.45% of the total disabled population in India, the sixth largest in the country.

Quick Statistics:

Capital: Jaipur
Population: 5,65,07,188
Population of Persons with Disabilities:14,11,979
Literacy: 67.1%

The Department of Social Welfare and Empowerment, Rajasthan implements the various rules and schemes concerning persons with disabilities in Rajasthan. The State Government has also appointed a Commissioner for Disabilities. In May 2010, the Rajasthan Government appointed a task force on disability to develop a Comprehensive Disability Policy for the state. The policy aims at including disability rights, values and practices into government developmental strategies, planning and programs and development of an integrated management system for the coordination of disability planning. The policy is still in the pre-cabinet stage.

The State Government has also introduced various schemes for welfare of persons with disability. Out of these, schemes such as the Viswas Yojana to provide loan and subsidy for self-employment, Sukhad Jeevan Yojana to provide assistance for marriage of disabled persons and the Aastha Yojana etc. are some of the more important ones.

Click to download the Rajasthan Chapter

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

CIS Gets ITU-D Sector Membership

nirmita — 2013-07-11T10:11:54Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has become a sector member of ITU-D, the development sector of the International Telecommunication Union, the specialized UN Agency dealing with telecommunications and information communications (ICTs).

Over the past years, CIS has had the opportunity to work with ITU on specific accessibility related projects. With this membership, CIS will be able to participate more regularly in ITU activities and contribute to key policy and regulatory debates surrounding telecommunications and ICTs at the global level. CIS is one of six civil society organizations registered as ITU members from the Asia-Pacific region.

CIS profile on ITU membership can be viewed here. Click to view the ITU Membership Certificate

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/cis-itu-d-sector-membership

CIS Intervention on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired at SCCR/SS/GE/2/13

pranesh — 2013-04-25T11:57:02Z

The informal session and special session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was organised by WIPO in Geneva from April 18 to April 20, 2013. Pranesh Prakash participated in the session and spoke about the rights of the visually impaired. An abridged version of this was read out during the meeting on Saturday, April 20, 2013, at 22:15 due to time restrictions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I represent the Centre for Internet and Society, a policy research organization based in India. India, as everyone who has been attending these SCCR meetings since 2008 would know, has the world's largest population of blind and visually impaired persons. Two of my colleagues at CIS — Nirmita Narasimhan and Anandhi Viswanathan — are blind, and another one of my CIS colleagues who passed away recently (and whose tireless efforts were remembered here at WIPO recently with a minute of silence) — Rahul Cherian — spent many years working extensively on policy issues related to persons with disabilities, and in particular worked here in WIPO as part of Inclusive Planet, and with the World Blind Union. Hence, this issue is not an abstract one for us, but a very real one.

I commend the delegates here for taking some steps forward during this meeting. However, very disappointingly, with those few steps forward, we have seen a few things we had taken as settled being opened up again, and many steps being taken backward. The already-onerous requirements and procedures laid down in this treaty are seen by a few countries as not being onerous enough. Blind people, it is believed, might 'wrongly' take advantage of these provisions. Worse yet, there is a fear that sighted persons might take advantage of these provisions relating to the blind.

The absurdity of these fears somehow seems to have escaped the notice of many involved in these discussions. There is nothing in these provisions that would convert infringement by sighted people — even if under the pretence of this treaty — magically into lawful acts. And, indeed, there are multifarious ways of infringing copyright without such resort to this treaty. Yet, these very same onerous requirements (such as the "commercial availability" requirement) and bureaucratic processes will unrealistically increase transaction costs for the visually impaired and render infructuous the very purpose of this treaty. Those delegations who are unrelenting on these issues seem to living in a bizarre world where sighted infringers deviously use exceptions granted in an international copyright treaty to engage in piracy; a bizarre world where scanners and the Internet have not been invented. And by refusing to acknowledge these ground realities, they are merely forcing the blind into wearing eye-patches and being 'pirates'.

In particular, I would like to deplore the stand taken by the European Union, being represented here by the European Commission, whose actions run contrary to the call made in May 2011 by the European Parliament to "to address the ‘book famine’ experienced by visually impaired and print-disabled people". This is despite the European Parliament having reminded "the Commission and Member States of their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to take all appropriate measures to ensure that people with disabilities enjoy access to cultural materials in accessible formats, and to ensure that laws protecting IPR do not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to access by people with disabilities to cultural materials". The EU, and a few countries of Group B, including the United States, have been slowly bleeding this treaty to death through over-legislation and bureaucracy.

The United States' and EU's stand on technological protection measures, if accepted, would mean that publishers will technologically be able to prevent the blind from enjoying accessible works, even when they can't do so legally on the basis of copyright law. The European Union's stand on all issues has been extraordinarily harmful, and seems to have an aim to make this treaty as unwieldy and unworkable as possible. They seem to regard the Berne Appendix as their model in this regard: an international agreement that exists on paper for the benefit of developing countries, but because of its bureaucratic processes is little used, and is widely regarded as a failure.

Here is what it boils down to: when it comes to the economic rights of copyright owners, current international law insists that there be no formalities, yet when it comes to the human rights of visually impaired person to access information — a right specifically guaranteed to them under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities — some delegates in this room wish to ensure as many formalities as possible.

The rights of the visually impaired are being buried under unnecessary and complicated requirements and bureaucratic practices. This injustice must stop: the delegates here have the power to do so. And if the EU does not wish to be viewed as villains by all persons with print disabilities and all persons with conscience, it should stop trying to make this an ineffectual treaty. Many have quipped that this is fast becoming "A Treaty for Rightholders Against Persons with Visual Impairments and Print Disabilities" or alternatively "A Treaty for Morally Impaired Persons and Persons with Ethical Disabilities". That is an international shame.

Having colonized much of the world into using English, French, and Spanish, these European countries along with the USA are now in a position to be both culturally dominant and to refuse to sign up to this treaty if it helps blind persons outside of the EU and the USA who seek access to texts in these languages. These remnants of colonialism must be stamped out.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-intervention-eu-blocking-wipo-treaty-for-blind

Girls in ICT Day

praskrishna — 2013-04-22T11:15:57Z

The Centre for Internet and Society and Mitra Jyothi is glad to invite you to celebrate Girls in ICT day on April 25, 2013 at the Mitra Jyothi auditorium in Bangalore. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja will give a talk on Social Media and Kannada Language for Women with Disabilities. The event will begin at 2 p.m. and end at 5 p.m.

Celebrated on the 4th Thursday of April every year, International Girls’ in ICT Day is an initiative backed by ITU Member States in ITU Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 (Guadalajara, 2010) to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

About the Speaker

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja holds a Master’s degree from Mysore University and Ph.D. from Mumbai University. He has vast experience and has dedicated himself fully for the cause of Computer and Indian languages. He is one of the oldest editors of Kannada Wikipedia.

Click to download the invite (PDF, 118 Kb)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/events/girls-in-ict-day

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD 2013)

praskrishna — 2013-05-09T04:27:04Z

The Centre for Internet and Society is pleased to invite you to participate in the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Bangalore on May 9, 2013. The event begins at 4.00 p.m. and will end by 7.00 p.m.

The purpose of the day is to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities. The target audience of GAAD is the design, development, usability, and related communities who build, shape, fund and influence technology and its use. While people may be interested in the topic of making technology accessible and usable by persons with disabilities, the reality is that they often do not know how or where to start. Awareness comes first.

This will be an opportunity for you to understand the importance of accessibility and how accessibility impacts several users and increase your customer base. This event will consist of presentations by Accessibility professionals in the industry, hands on demonstrations of how people with disabilities use technology and an opportunity to meet peers in the industry.

Agenda

16.00 16.20	Opening remarks by Nirmita Narasimhan, Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
16.20 17.00	Accessibility - What, Why and How? by Vivek Gaikwad, Lead Accessibility Expert, Informatica
17.00 17.40	Test for Accessibility by Lavanya Lakshman, Yahoo!
17.40 18.00	Demonstrations of assistive technologies
18.00 18.20	Q & A with panelists
18.20 19.00	Wrap up, networking and refreshments

There will be panel discussions with the following speakers:

Vivek Gaikwad, Lead Accessibility Expert, Informatica
Lavanya Lakshman, Yahoo!
Rama Chari, Director, DEOC
Anasuya Das, Mitra Jyothi
Srividya Vaidyanathan - Multimedia

About the Speakers

Vivek Gaikwad	Vivek is an individual, passionate about accessibility, who digs out all the possible ways to make an application accessible to persons with disabilities. For past 7 years, he is consistently doing R&D on how to make applications, games, e-learning and mobile apps which are built in various technologies/platforms such as Flash, HTML, iOS and Android, PDF, etc., accessible. His emphasis is on providing feasible accessibility solutions by understanding the scenario and the compliance required. His various roles so far in his career such as a developer, tester, trainer and consultant apprehends in finding the exact fit solution for any accessibility related issue. This also helps in understanding and filling the gap between management and the delivery team for accessibility projects. He doesn't work only for compliance of any product, but tries to make it 100 per cent accessible for all the users. Vivek also loves trekking and getting involved in creative things.
Srividya Vaidyanathan	Srividya has a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from NIT Warangal and is currently working as a Consultant for the Centre for Internet & Society. She more than 13 years of experience in the software industry with TCS, Oracle etc with her latest stint being a co-founder of PixelMat Software a company that makes development of pure native mobile apps easier. A very hands-on mom who loves to play ball with her son in her free time.
Lavanya Lakshman	Lavanya has done BE in Electronics Engineering and MS in Networking from Symbiosis, Pune. She has close to 10 years of experience with over 5 and a half years with Yahoo alone. She is working as principal engineer on font end development and works mainly on platform products varying from user profile experience to application development network. She is currently working on Geo Platform for serving location based experience across Yahoo. She has submitted papers in various forums which includes: White paper titled “Strategic Choice of Test Automation Framework”. This was selected for plenary presentation at SteP-IN Summit 2009. White paper titled “A New Era of Accessibility Testing”. This was selected for publication at the USID Conference 2009. White paper titled “Accessibility: An Emerging field of Usability” for Step-IN Summit 2010.
Rama Chari	Rama Chari has about two decades of work experience in the field of disability. She started her career as an Educator for children with disabilities in the rural community based project of Action for Ability Development & inclusion (AADI) (Formerly, Spastics Society of Northern India (SSNI), She prepared children with disabilities for integrating them into regular schools in the villages of Haryana. She then joined National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), a leading national level advocacy organisation. At NCPEDP, she headed the Legislation, Networking and Communication Units. As part of the core management team of NCPEDP, she played an important role in bringing about several policy changes vis-à-vis disability in the country. In November 2005, she took up a consultancy with Infosys BPO, for setting up their Equal Opportunity Programme. In July 2007, she along with four other professionals set up DEOC. She is serving as an Honorary Board Member of ARUNIM, a marketing initiative for promoting products and services made by disability groups and NGOs. She is also part of the NCPEDP’s National Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disability, which focuses on advocacy for appropriate policies in the country. She is also a Core Group Member of the Disability Forum of Confederation of Indian Industry – Karnataka Chapter. She has travelled widely and has made several presentations on the subject, in national and international conferences / seminars.
Anusuya Das	Anusuya graduated in Computer Engineering from Mumbai University in 2004, and worked as a Software Engineer for 2½ years. Later, she changed her field and completed Masters Degree in Social Work from Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, Mumbai University. During the 2 years, she gained valuable experience and insight while working for various causes such as Child labour, Disaster Management and Disability. Since 2010, she is working as Chief Coordinator at Mitra Jyothi, Bangalore. It is an NGO working towards the education, training and empowerment of the visually impaired. She is mainly handling the DAISY production unit, Braille Transcription Centre and Digital Talking Book Library at Mitra Jyothi, and is a certified trainer in DAISY content creation.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/events/global-accessibility-awareness-day-2013

Review of Guidelines for Indian Government Websites-meeting notice

praskrishna — 2013-04-28T03:39:18Z

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension has called for a meeting for review of guidelines for Indian Government websites. The meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Shri Anoop Kumar Srivastava, Addl. Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Click to download the notice.

The competent authority constituted a committee to review Guidelines for Indian Government Websites. Sunil Abraham is a committee member, and will participate in this meeting. The meeting will be held in the Committee Room, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, 5th Floor, Sardar Patel Bhawan, Parliament Street, New Delhi on April 5, 2013.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/ministry-of-personnel-public-grievances-and-pension-notice-review-of-guidelines-for-indian-government-websites

National Resource Kit: The Uttar Pradesh Chapter (Call for Comments)

Manojna Yeluri — 2013-04-03T10:49:25Z

The Centre for Internet & Society and the Hans Foundation are pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Note: This chapter is an early draft which is in the process of being reviewed and updated. Comments and feedback are welcome.

Summary

The State of Uttar Pradesh has taken several measures by way of schemes, programmes, government orders and notifications for the benefit of persons living with disabilities. The state government has established shelter homes and vocational training centres in several parts of the states — most recently in Meerut, Bareilly and Gorakhpur. The state government has also undertaken to finance nearly 4340 corrective surgeries for polio across nine cities of Uttar Pradesh. The state government has also attempted to alleviate stress and difficulties faced in the process of procuring a disability certificate, by providing clear guidelines as to the issue and procurement of such certificates, and by also creating a decentralised system of disability certification where the certification may be obtained from private practitioners, government health care centres, primary and secondary health care centres, private psychologists and psychiatrists who are authorised to issue certificates of mental retardation (MR).

The State of Uttar Pradesh has thus emphasised the need for several notifications and schemes to suit the specialized requirements of persons with disabilities. The Disabled Welfare Department vide GO No 1464/65-2-2000-178/2000 dated 30.09.2000 released a list of the various schemes and allied programme measures made available by the State Government for the benefit of persons with disabilities and the eligibility criteria for those interested in availing benefits under this. The schemes and measures mentioned in the order include;

Schemes for providing scholarships for educational and vocational training to students who have been physically disabled (Students from Class 1-12, Graduation and Post Graduation).
Schemes to provide disability pension for unemployed and poor persons suffering from visual impairment, speech impediments and physical disability.
Schemes to provide financial assistance for the purchase and procurement of aids and appliances.
Scheme to provide incentives and grants to encourage marriages with persons living with disabilities.
Schemes related to providing free travel by bus to persons with disabilities
Schemes for the employment and setting up of shops by persons with disabilities, 1998

The State of Uttar Pradesh has also intended to start several projects in 2013. These include the establishment of a Braille Press in order to produce Braille books, magazines and other study material.

Click to download the full chapter here.

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

March 2013 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2013-04-14T11:45:29Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcomes you to the third issue of its newsletter for the year 2013. In this issue we bring you an overview of our research programs, updates of events organised by us, events we participated in, news and media coverage, and videos of some of our recent events.

Jobs
CIS invites applications for the posts of Developer (NVDA Screen Reader Project), Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge and Openness), and Programme Officer (Internet Governance). To apply send your resume to sunil@cis-india.org and pranesh@cis-india.org.

Accessibility

CIS is doing two projects in partnership with the Hans Foundation. One of this is to create a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India and another is for developing a screen reader and text-to- speech synthesizer for Indian languages. CIS is also working with the World Blind Union and many other organisations to develop a Treaty for the Visually Impaired helped by the WIPO:

National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities
Anandhi Viswanathan from CIS and Manojna Yeluri from the Centre for Law and Policy Research are working in this project. Draft chapters have been published. Feedback and comments are invited from readers for the chapters on Lakshadweep, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh:

The Lakshadweep Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, March 25, 2013): The union territory of Lakshadweep has not passed any legislation for persons with disabilities, but implements the provisions under the central laws. The benefits currently available to persons with disabilities in Lakshadweep include disability pension, unemployment allowance and grant for setting up kiosks.
The Meghalaya Chapter (by Manojna Yeluri, March 25, 2013): Meghalaya is one of the few north-eastern states, which has appointed a Commissioner for Disabilities. Most of the schemes and benefits given to persons with disabilities in Meghalaya are under centrally sponsored schemes. Very few schemes are initiated by the state government.
The Uttar Pradesh Chapter (by Manojna Yeluri, March 31, 2013): The Government of Uttar Pradesh has established shelter homes and vocational training centres in several parts of the states — most recently in Meerut, Bareilly and Gorakhpur. It has also undertaken to finance nearly 4340 corrective surgeries for polio across nine cities of Uttar Pradesh. It also intends to start several projects in 2013. These include the establishment of a Braille Press in order to produce Braille books, magazines and other study material.

Resources
We now have a new section on our website which contains all government notifications, RTI applications, and accessibility related resources: cases, statutes, etc. The following were published earlier this month:

Information about Schemes for Disabled Persons in Haryana We received this notification on schemes and policies for persons with disabilities from the Government of Haryana.
Haryana Government Notification (Hindi version): The notification that we received from the state government was in Hindi. We will put up the English translation soon.
West Bengal (Govt) Notifications: We received a series of notifications from the West Bengal Government from its various departments such as finance, higher education, transport, health and family welfare, labour, land and land reforms, panchayats and rural development, etc. OCR versions of the same have been published.
Lakshadweep (Govt) Notifications: Notifications received from the Lakshadweep Government including guidelines for functioning of KIOSKS, grant of unemployment allowance and special jobs to persons with disabilities, issuing identity card to persons with disabilities for availing government benefits, etc., are published. OCR versions have also been put up.

Event Participated In

A Discussion on Intercept between UNCRPD & CEDAW (organized by the Shanta Memorial Institute of Rehabilitation – Odisha, CBR Network and Mitra Jyoti, Bangalore, Karnataka, February 4, 2013): Anandhi Viswanathan participated in this event.

Access to Knowledge and Openness

The Wikimedia Foundation awarded CIS a two year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop the growth of Indic language communities and projects by community collaborations and partnerships. This is being carried out by the Access to Knowledge team based in Delhi. CIS is also doing a project (Pervasive Technologies) on examining the relationship between production of pervasive technologies and intellectual property. CIS also promotes openness including open government data, open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software through its Openness programme.

Wikipedia

Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation awarded CIS a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The A2K team consists of four members based in Delhi: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Nitika Tandon, Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval, and one team member Dr. U.B. Pavanaja who is working from Bangalore office.

Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project

Visualising Basic Parameters (by Sajjad Anwar and Sumandro Chattapadhyay, March 26, 2013): Sajjad and Sumandro bring you a visualisation of the growth of Indic Wikipedia in this first post on Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project. They look into the different aspects of the past and present activities of Indic Wikipedias, and divide the visualisation into three different focus areas: (1) basic parameters, (2) geographic patterns of edits, and (3) exploring the topics that receives the greatest number of edits.

Events Organised

Introductory Wikipedia session at BITS Goa (organised by CIS, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Goa, March 7, 2013). The Access to Knowledge team was invited by Nikhil Dixit from BITS to organise a Wikipedia editing session. Nitika Tandon led the session on IP editing.
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (organised by CIS, Institution of Engineers, JLB Road, Mysore, March 24, 2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja led this workshop.

Events Co-organised

Wiki Women's Day in Goa (organised by the Wikimedia India Chapter and CIS, Nirmala Institute of Education, Panaji, Goa, March 8, 2013). Nitika Tandon participated in this workshop held on International Working Women's Day, and shares the developments in this report.
Wikipedia Workshop for Kannada Science Writers (organised by Wikimedia India Chapter, Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishath and CIS, Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishath Conference Hall, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore, March 17, 2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja participated in the event.

Upcoming Event

Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam 2013 (co-organised with the Telegu Wikipedia community, Hyderabad, April 9 to 11, 2013). Vishnu Vardhan is participating in this event as a speaker. A public event will be held on April 11 from 5.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. at Golden Threshold (Sarojini Naidu's house) in Hyderabad.

Events Participated

Wikipedia Women's Workshop Bangalore 2013 (organised by Wikimedia India, Servelots Infotech, Jayanagar, Bangalore, March 8, 2013). The event was covered by Kannada Prabha on March 9, 2013. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja participated in the event.
Wikipedia at Avenir (organised by the Wikipedia community, Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Kolkata, West Bengal, March 11, 2013). CIS supported this event.

Event Report from Other Organisations
Wikipedia Community members helped the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications Programme (HEIRA) of CSCS Bangalore to organize a day-long workshop on ‘Digital Literacy’ at Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, Maharasthra on January 17, 2013. Tanveer Hasan of HEIRA shares with us the developments in this report.

Other Openness Updates

Event Report

Iraqi Public Data Scenario Workshop: A Summary (by Sumandro Chattapadhyay, March 26, 2013): A workshop on public data was conducted by Sunil Abraham and Sumandro Chattapadhyay for the officials of the Government of Iraq. It was organized by UNDP Iraq in Amman, Jordan from October 18 to 23, 2012. Sumandro Chattapadhyay shares with us the developments from the workshop held over five days.

Event Participated

Open DataCamp - 2013 (organized by Open Data Camp, Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram (inside Christ University Campus), Dairy Circle, Bangalore, March 2 and 3, 2013): Sunil Abraham was a panelist.

HasGeek
HasGeek creates discussion spaces for geeks and has organised conferences like the Fifth Elephant, Droidcon India 2011, Android Camp, etc. HasGeek is supported by CIS and works from the CIS office in Bengaluru.

Upcoming Events

Pig Workshop (organized by HasGeek, Alchemy Solutions, Domlur, Bangalore, 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.): A workshop on how to use Pig for mining useful information from data. It is open to programmers who have a background in Java programming, some familiarity with Hadoop and MapReduce algorithms, and have worked with large chunks of data.
The Fifth Elephant 2013 (organized by HasGeek, July 11 to 13, 2013, NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bangalore).

Internet Governance

The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes. Currently, CIS is doing a project with Privacy International, London to facilitate research and events around surveillance, and freedom of speech and expression.

Privacy

Policy

Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill (April 2012): High Level Concerns (by Elonnai Hickok, March 12, 2013). The post examines the high level concerns that CIS has with the April 2012 draft of the Bill.
Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 Analysis (by Jeremy Gruber, Council for Responsible Genetics, US, March 19, 2013). Jeremy provides an analysis of the Human DNA Profiling Bill, 2012. He says that India’s updated 2012 Human DNA Profiling Bill offers largely superficial changes from its predecessor, the Draft DNA Profiling Bill, 2007.

The Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013: A Citizen's Draft (by Bhairav Acharya, March 26, 2013). Bhairav Acharya has drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013. It contains provisions that speak to data protection, interception, and surveillance and also establishes the powers and functions of the Privacy Commissioner, and lays out offenses and penalties for contravention of the Bill. The Bill represents a citizen's version of possible privacy legislation for India, and will be shared with key stakeholders including civil society, industry, and government.

Upcoming Events

A Privacy Round Table in Delhi (organized by CIS and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FICCI Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi, April 3, 2013).
A Privacy Round Table in Bangalore (organized by CIS and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Jayamahal Palace, Jayamahal Road, Bangalore, April 20, 2013).

Event Organized

Analyzing the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 (organized by the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, March 1, 2013): Maria Xynou shares a summary of the workshop in this report.

Events Participated In

Global Partners Meeting @ London (organized by Privacy International, London School of Economics and Political Science, March 22 – 25, 2013). Sunil Abraham and Malavika Jayaram participated in the event.
India’s Civil Liberties Crisis: Of Bans, Blocks, Bullying and Biometrics (organized by the Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, March 28, 2013). Malavika Jayaram participated as a speaker.
Future of Privacy in India (organized by DSCI and ICOMP, Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi, April 5, 2013). Sunil Abraham is a speaker at this event.

Blog Posts

Hacking without borders: The future of artificial intelligence and surveillance (by Maria Xynou, March 15, 2013). In this post, Maria looks at some of DARPA´s artificial intelligence surveillance technologies in regards to the right to privacy and their potential future use in India.
Driving in the Surveillance Society: Cameras, RFID tags and Black Boxes... (by Maria Xynou, March 26, 2013). Maria examines red light cameras, RFID tags and black boxes used to monitor vehicles in India.
Microsoft Releases its First Report on Data Requests by Law Enforcement Agencies around the World (by Maria Xynou, March 27, 2013). CIS presents Microsoft´s report on law enforcement requests, with a focus on data requested by Indian law enforcement agencies.
The Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2013 — Penalising 'Peeping Toms' and Other Privacy Issues (by Divij Joshi, March 31, 2013). The pending amendments to the Indian Penal Code, if passed in their current format, would be a huge boost for individual physical privacy by criminalising stalking and sexually-tinted voyeurism and removing the ambiguities in Indian law which threaten the privacy and dignity of individuals.

IT Act

Featured Blog Post

CIS Welcomes Standing Committee Report on IT Rules (by Pranesh Prakash, March 27, 2013). CIS welcomes the report by the Standing Committee on Subordinate Legislation, in which it has lambasted the government and has recommended that the government amend the Rules it passed in April 2011 under section 79 of the Information Technology Act. The post was quoted in: The Times of India (March 28, 2013), The Statesman (March 28, 2013), Economic Times (March 28, 2013), Data Quest (March 28, 2013), and The Hindu (April 1, 2013).

Submissions
Bhairav Acharya, on behalf of CIS submitted comments to the Committee on Subordinate Legislation of the 15^th Lok Sabha for the following rules:

Comments on the Information Technology (Electronic Service Delivery) Rules, 2011. The Rules were notified by the Central Government in the Gazette of India vide Notification GSR 316(E) on April 11, 2011.
Comments on the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011. The Rules were notified by the Central Government in the Gazette of India vide Notification GSR 313(E) on April 11, 2011.
Comments on the Information Technology (Guidelines for Cyber Cafe) Rules, 2011. The Rules were notified by the Central Government in the Gazette of India vide Notification GSR 315(E) on April 11, 2011.

Note: The above rules were submitted earlier but published on our website only recently.

Unique ID Project

Event Organized

Unique Identity Number (UID), National Population Register (NPR), and Governance (organized by CIS and Say No to UID Campaign, TERI, Bangalore, March 2, 2013): CIS interviewed Usha Ramanathan and Anant Maringanti. Watch the videos uploaded in this blog post by Maria Xynou. This was covered in newzfirst on March 3, 2013 and in the Hindu on March 3, 2013.

Interview

Unique Identification Scheme (UID) & National Population Register (NPR), and Governance (by Elonnai Hickok, March 14, 2013). The post examines the UID, NPR and Governance as it exists in India. A video on the UID interview Questions and Answers is published.

News and Media

Indian ID crisis unveils Aadhaar doubts (ZDNet, March 14, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.
New $1 Billion RIC Project Casts Doubts on Aadhaar (AEG India, March 16, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.

Blog Entry

India's Biometric Identification Programs and Privacy Concerns (by Divij Joshi, March 31, 2013).

Free Speech and Expression

News and Media

Foreign Funding of NGOs (by Prashant Reddy, Open Magazine, March 2, 2013).
Iceland’s proposed porn ban ‘like repression in Iran, N. Korea’ – activists (RT, March 1, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.
Chidambaram to Talk Budget on Google+ Hangout (by Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.
Responding to govt requests is a challenge for online firms: Colin Maclay (LiveMint, March 13, 2013). Colin M. Maclay, managing director of Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard mentioned CIS.
Indian police set up lab to monitor social media (originally published by AFP, March 18, 2013, and also carried in Global Post on the same day). Sunil Abraham is quoted.
Namaste, Mr. Eric Schmidt (by R. Jai Krishna, Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.
Parliament panel blasts govt over ambiguous internet laws (by Ishan Srivastava, The Times of India, March 28, 2013). Pranesh Prakash is quoted.
What if the Net shut down for a few days (by Atul Sethi, The Times of India, March 30, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.
Press controls ‘send wrong message to rest of world’ (by Jerome Starkey from Johannesburg, Francis Elliott from Delhi and David Brown, The Times, UK).

Event Organized

Freedom Song: Film Screening and Discussion (IIHS Bangalore City Campus, March 21, 2013). Freedom Song, a documentary film produced by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust and directed by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Subi Chaturvedi was screened.

Events Participated In

Is Social Media Incredible? (organized by Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, Bangalore, March 2, 2013). Snehashish Ghosh participated in a panel discussion. The New Indian Express published a post-event report.
Rethinking the Internet: The Way Forward (organized by Telecom Italia and Financial iTimes, Telecom Italia Future Centre, Italy, March 21 – 22, 2013). Pranesh Prakash participated in this event.

Others

Events Organised

DML 2013: Fourth Annual Conference (co-organised by CIS and Digital Media & Learning Research Hub Central, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers - Chicago, Illinois, March 14 – 16, 2013). We had a special track that ran through the conference on "Whose Change Is It Anyway? Futures, Youth, Technology And Citizen Action In The Global South (And The Rest Of The World)". Noopur Raval was one of the 16 presenters that we had selected on the tracks. Nishant Shah was one of the members in the Conference Committee.

Blog Posts

WGIG+8: Stock-Taking, Mapping, and Going Forward (Fontenoy Building, conference room # 7, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, February 27, 2013). Pranesh Prakash was the moderator for the session. A summary of the discussion has been published.
What’s In a Name? — DNS Singularity of ICANN and the Gold Rush (by Sharath Chandra Ram, March 31, 2013). March 2013 being the 28th birthday of the first ever registered Internet domain as well as the exigent launch of the Trademark Clearing House disguised as a milestone in rights protection by ICANN for its new gTLD program, Sharath Chandra Ram, dissects the transitory role of ICANN from being a technical outfit to the Boardroom Big Brother of Internet Governance.
An Introduction to Bitfilm & Bitcoin in Bangalore, India (by Benson Samuel, March 12, 2013). Video of the event organized by CIS on January 23, 2013 is published in this blog post.

Knowledge Repository on Internet Access

CIS in partnership with the Ford Foundation is executing a project on Internet Access. It covers the history of the internet, technologies involved, principle and values of internet access, broadband market and universal access and will touch upon various polices and regulations which has an impact on internet access and bodies and mechanism which are responsible for formulation policies related to internet access. The blog posts and modules will be published in a new website: www.internet-institute.in.

Upcoming Event
We are hosting an “Institute on Internet and Society” in collaboration with the Ford Foundation India, which is to be held from June 8, 2013 to June 14, 2013. Call for registration and relevant details will be announced soon on our website.

The following units have been published:

Internet Protocols (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, March 18, 2013).
How email works, how do you get your email? Email Protocols (SMTP, POP, IMAP), SPAM/Phishing (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, March 19, 2013).
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (by Snehashish Ghosh, March 19, 2013).
ITU sectors — ITU-R, ITU-T, ITU-D, etc. (by Snehashish Ghosh, March 27, 2013).
World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012 (by Snehashish Ghosh, March 29, 2013).

Telecom

CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility of telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Newspaper Column

Are India's Glory Days Over? (by Shyam Ponappa, Organizing India Blogspot, March 8, 2013, originally published in the Business Standard, March 6, 2013).

Digital Natives

Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:

Events Participated In

Video Vortex # 9 Re:assemblies of Video (organized by the Institute of Network Cultures, Post Media Lab, Moving Image Lab, Leuphana, et.al, February 28 – March 2, 2013). Nishant Shah gave the key note. Videos of the event are published.

Digital Humanities

From 2012 to 2015, the Researchers @ Work series is focusing on building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. We organised the first Habits of Living workshops in Bangalore last year. The next workshop is being held in Brown University

Event Co-organised

Habits of Living: Networked Affects, Glocal Effects (co-organised with Brown University, March 21 – 23, 2013, Brown University, Rhode Island). Nishant Shah was a speaker at this event. He made a presentation on network ontologies.

Event Participated

Korean Trans Cine-Media in Global Contexts: Asia and the World (organized by Trans-Asia Screen Culture Institute, Cinema Studies, Korean National University of Arts, Korean Film Archive and Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University, Seoul, March 27 – 29, 2013). Nishant Shah was a speaker at this event. He spoke on "The Asian Intercourse: Reimagining the Inter-Asia moment through ‘net-porn’ in networks".

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

Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter
Join the CIS group on Facebook
Visit us at http://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

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/march-2013-bulletin

A Discussion on Intercept between UNCRPD & CEDAW

anandi — 2013-03-27T10:04:30Z

A seminar was jointly organized by the Shanta Memorial Institute of Rehabilitation – Odisha, CBR Network and Mitra Jyoti to discuss the intercept between the United Nations Convention for Protection of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on February 4, 2013 at Mitra Jyoti in Bangalore. Anandhi Viswanathan participated in the seminar and shares her experiences in this post.

The aim of the seminar was to explore the challenges faced by women with disabilities and the need to set up a national network of women with disabilities in India. The discussions were led by Dr. Asha Hans of the Shanta Memmorial Institute of Rehabilitation, Indumathi Rao of the CBR Network and Madhu Singhal of Mitra Jyoti.

Participants at the seminar discussed some of the challenges that women with disabilities faced in the country on a regular basis. Violence against women with disabilities was a major concern raised by several participants. It was felt that many disabled women are victims of violence — physical, emotional or sexual in nature, which are perpetuated on them either in their homes or at their workplaces or outside in general.

Health and sanitation concerns of women with disabilities were also discussed. The lack in general awareness of the health and sanitation requirements of women with disabilities and the non-availability of facilities to cater to these needs were felt to be some of the major concerns in this sphere. Participants also felt that the lack of awareness and the general social attitude towards women with disabilities lead to their marginalisation and alienation in society.

Women with disabilities face double discrimination — on grounds of their disability and for their gender. They are not included in discussions on disability which revolve around men with disabilities, or on discussions on women which more often than not focuses on women without disabilities, and unfortunately this “minority” group of women with disabilities is left on its own. The challenges faced by women with disabilities are unique. These are quite different from challenges faced by either by men with disabilities or by women without disabilities. Women with disabilities are yet to be categorised as a separate group by the government for considering and addressing their difficulties.

The participants at this event further felt that the challenges being faced by women with disabilities could be addressed by introducing provisions specific to their needs in the legislations for persons with disabilities. The seminar concluded that two exercises must be undertaken to consolidate the case for including provisions specific to women with disabilities in legislations:

Developing a system of including women with disabilities as a separate category in all the data pools being compiled by the government, and
Creating a database of issues being faced by women with disabilities on all levels across the country.

It was proposed that a network of women with disabilities be set up in order to create a platform for women with disabilities to showcase challenges and seek solutions. The group felt that the network could play an active role in documenting issues faced by women with disabilities and aid in creating a database of challenges. The network could also play a part in seeking for women with disabilities to be included as a separate category in all national data pools compiled by the government.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/discussion-on-intercept-between-uncrpd-and-cedaw

Lakshadweep Notifications (OCR)

praskrishna — 2013-03-27T03:28:20Z

Find below the unedited scanned versions of the notifications received from the Government of Lakshadweep.

The folder contains the following:

Guidelines for Functioning of KIOSKS for Encouraging Self Employment among Disabled Persons in the Islands, Lakshadweep.
Guidelines for Grant of Unemployment Allowance and Special Job to Persons with Disabilities.
Guidelines for Issuing Identity Card to Persons with Disabilities for Availing Government Benefits and Concessions.
Notification on Amendments in regard to Payment of Pension of Old Destitute Old-aged, Widows, Physically Disabled, Abandoned Ladies/Destitutes.
Notification on Setting up of District Disability Rehabilitation Centre at Kavaratti.
Notification for Constitution of a Local Level Committee for implementation of National Trusts Act, 1999.
Notification for Constitution of Lakshadweep State Executive Committee.
Notification for Constitution of Island Level Committee to Scrutinize, Certify and Recommend the Applications of Individuals/Voluntary Organizations related to Disability Section under the Chairmanship of Sub Divisional Officers/Deputy Collectors.
Notification for Constitution of a State Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Welfare) with Representatives of Concerned Department/Agencies to Co-ordinate and Monitor the Implementation of the National Programme for Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities in Lakshadweep.

Click to download the OCR files.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/lakshadweep-ocr-notifications

Lakshadweep (Govt) Notifications

praskrishna — 2013-03-27T03:19:13Z

The following folder contains a series of notifications received by CIS from the Government of Lakshadweep recently.

The folder contains the following:

Guidelines for Functioning of KIOSKS for Encouraging Self Employment among Disabled Persons in the Islands, Lakshadweep.
Guidelines for Grant of Unemployment Allowance and Special Job to Persons with Disabilities.
Guidelines for Issuing Identity Card to Persons with Disabilities for Availing Government Benefits and Concessions.
Notification on Amendments in regard to Payment of Pension of Old Destitute Old-aged, Widows, Physically Disabled, Abandoned Ladies/Destitutes.
Notification on Setting up of District Disability Rehabilitation Centre at Kavaratti.
Notification for Constitution of a Local Level Committee for implementation of National Trusts Act, 1999.
Notification for Constitution of Lakshadweep State Executive Committee.
Notification for Constitution of Island Level Committee to Scrutinize, Certify and Recommend the Applications of Individuals/Voluntary Organizations related to Disability Section under the Chairmanship of Sub Divisional Officers/Deputy Collectors.
Notification for Constitution of a State Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Welfare) with Representatives of Concerned Department/Agencies to Co-ordinate and Monitor the Implementation of the National Programme for Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities in Lakshadweep.

Click to download the files (PDFs) received from the from the Government of Lakshadweep.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/lakshadweep-govt-notifications

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

anandi — 2014-02-20T10:00:32Z

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 Lakshadweep.

The Department of Social Justice, Empowerment and Culture is responsible for welfare of persons with disabilities in Lakshadweep. The union territory has an estimated population of 1678 persons with disabilities in a total population of 64,429 people. Lakshadweep implements two schemes under Skill Development & Employment, three schemes under Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation & Recreation and has notified authorities for disability Certification and certifying Organisations & Individuals for Persons with Disabilities.

Click to download the full chapter (PDF, 187 Kb)

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

National Resource Kit : The Meghalaya Chapter: Call for Comments

Manojna Yeluri — 2013-11-07T06:17:57Z

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 Meghalaya.

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

Executive Summary

Meghalaya is one of the few north-eastern states, which has appointed a Commissioner for Disabilities. Most of the schemes and benefits given to persons with disabilities in Meghalaya are under centrally sponsored schemes. Very few schemes are initiated by the state government. Most of these schemes are in the fields of education and health and rehabilitation, and unfortunately one of the biggest lapses is that the state government has not yet identified jobs for persons with disabilities in the government sector and not provided for the mandatory 3 per cent reservation of jobs in the public sector for persons with disabilities.

Quick Statistics:

Capital: Shillong
Population: 29,64,007
Population of Persons with Disabilities: 1,00,000/- (approx)
Literacy: 75.48%
Department and Directorates:

The Social Welfare Department, Government of Meghalaya: This department provides services to persons with disabilities. Requirements for the welfare of the disabled people are taken into consideration including the type of disability, prevention, early detection and rehabilitation. The state has appointed a commissioner for disabilities as required under the Persons with Disabilities Act.

Legal Provisions

The state has not passed any special legislation for persons with disabilities but implements the provisions under the three central laws:

Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (Persons with Disabilities Act)
National Trust for Persons with Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 (National Trust Act)
Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992

The schemes for persons with disabilities that are being implemented by the state are listed as under:

Employment

Currently there is no evidence that the state government has reserved 3 per cent of jobs for persons with disabilities in the government. The orders and notifications for reservations in government jobs show reservations made for various tribes and scheduled castes, but there is no reference to reservations for persons with disabilities.

Although the state has not provided reservation for persons with disabilities in government jobs, it has introduced the following schemes for vocational training, self-employment and for starting small businesses:

Vocational Training to Physically Handicapped for Self Employment Scheme: This Scheme provides financial assistance to NGOs for carrying out vocational training.
Uddyam Prabba: This is an interest subsidy scheme for self-employment. A person with disability who takes a loan from any bank or NHFDC can get interest subsidy of 5 per cent if he/ she is below poverty line (“BPL”) or 3 per cent otherwise on loan amount upto Rs. 1 lakh.
ARUNIM: Association for Rehabilitation under National Trust Initiative of Marketing has been launched to help persons with disabilities in product designing, production processes, packaging and marketing to enable them to be financially independent.
There are several centrally sponsored schemes for encouraging business and self-employment for persons with disabilities through loans and financial support under the following schemes:

National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation Schemes for Financing Projects
Self-Employment in Small Businesses
Assistance to Disabled Entrepreneurs
Assistance for Higher Studies, Professional Training
Assistance for Agricultural Activities
Scheme to Promote Manufacturing / Production of Assistive Devices for Disabled Persons
Assistance for Skills and Entrepreneurial Development Programmes
Schemes to promote Self-employment amongst Persons with Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy and Autism

Education

In the field of education, the state has provided schemes for scholarships, financial assistance, grant-in-aid, etc. These include schemes from the state government and some centrally sponsored schemes.

Scholarships and allowances: The state has enacted schemes to provide scholarships to students with disabilities in recognized schools, colleges, and institutions from nursery to post-graduate levels. The rates of scholarships vary according to the level of education and whether students are hostelites or day scholars. Reader allowance is also given to visually impaired students studying from class IX onwards. Awards are also given to meritorious disabled students. These awards provide for additional allowances to students per month.

Financial assistance to disabled students: This scheme provides financial assistance to disabled students for uniform grant, book grant, conveyance allowance and unempoyment allowance.

The Integrated Education of Disabled Children (I.E.D.C.) Scheme: This is a centrally sponsored scheme which provides educational opportunities for disabled children in common schools, to facilitate their retention in the school system and also to place in common schools, such children already placed in special schools after they acquire the communication and daily living skills at the functional level.

Grant-in-aid to Voluntary Organisations: This scheme provides financial assistance to voluntary organisations for maintenance of special schools and vocational training for persons with disabilities.

Aspiration Scheme under the National Trusts Act: This is an early intervention programme for school readiness. The scheme is to work with children of 0-6 years with developmental disabilities, to make them ready for mainstream and social schools. The activities carried out under this scheme are: awareness generation amongst parents of persons with disabilities, assessment and evaluation of children with disabilities, motivation and counselling to parents and families, training for daily living activities, pre-school skills – (pre-reading, pre-maths, etc.), Therapeutic services which includes physiotherapy / occupational therapy / speech / psychotherapy and psychiatric intervention, audio logical assessment and suitable referral, music drama / play therapy / pre-vocational training, facilitation in getting admission into special school and inclusive school and respite care services (for parents).

Gyan Prabba: A scholarship scheme for doing any employment oriented course after schooling. Under the scheme, a monthly scholarship of Rs. 700/- shall be paid for upto 1 year.

Samarti: This is a centrally sponsored scheme introduced for residential services – both short term (respite care) and long term (prolonged care). Activities in a Samarth centre would include early intervention, special education or integrated school, open school, pre-vocational and vocation training, employment oriented training, recreation, sports, etc. The facilities in the home would be available to both men and women on a 50-50 per cent basis and shall cover all the four disabilities under the National Trust.

Centrally sponsored schemes for the establishment and development of special schools.

Health & Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation Treatment for the Disabled Scheme: This scheme provides financial assistance to disabled persons who cannot afford to undergo treatment inside and outside state.

Gharaunda Scheme: GHARAUNDA or Group Home and Rehabilitation Activities Under National Trust Act for Disabled Adults is a new scheme for providing life long shelter and care to persons with disabilities in group homes.

Sabyogi: It is a new and revamped scheme of caregivers training and deployment. A new training module has been designed and a system of training and deployment of caregivers has been provided for under the scheme.

Assistance to voluntary organizations: This is for the rehabilitation of leprosy-cured persons.

Assistance to organizations: This is for persons with cerebral palsy and mental retardation.

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

West Bengal Notifications (OCR)

praskrishna — 2013-03-15T05:23:22Z

Find below the unedited scanned versions of the notifications received from various departments of West Bengal.

Click to download the files (Zip Folder, 3.05. Mb).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-notifications.zip

West Bengal (Govt) Notifications

praskrishna — 2013-03-14T08:42:42Z

The following folder contains a series of notifications received by CIS from the Government of West Bengal recently.

Click to download the files (PDFs) received from the various state departments from the Government of West Bengal.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-govt-notifications

Centre for Internet and Society

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

CIS Gets ITU-D Sector Membership

CIS Intervention on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired at SCCR/SS/GE/2/13

Girls in ICT Day

About the Speaker

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD 2013)

Review of Guidelines for Indian Government Websites-meeting notice

National Resource Kit: The Uttar Pradesh Chapter (Call for Comments)

Summary

March 2013 Bulletin

Access to Knowledge and Openness

Other Openness Updates

Privacy

IT Act

Unique ID Project

Free Speech and Expression

Others

Follow us elsewhere

Support Us

Request for Collaboration

A Discussion on Intercept between UNCRPD & CEDAW

Lakshadweep Notifications (OCR)

Contents

Lakshadweep (Govt) Notifications

Contents

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

National Resource Kit : The Meghalaya Chapter: Call for Comments

Executive Summary

Legal Provisions

Employment

Education

Health & Rehabilitation

West Bengal Notifications (OCR)

West Bengal (Govt) Notifications