In the budget for financial year 2022-23 a sum of INR 1212 crore (one crore=10 million) was allocated (Budget Estimate or BE) for the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disability (DEPD). After ten and a half months had passed, up to 13 February 2023, only about half of this—INR 612 crore to be precise—had been utilized. This extremely low[Read More…]
In an incident that raised eyebrows recently, budget airline IndiGo denied boarding to a specially-abled child on a Hyderabad-bound flight at the Ranchi airport. The wheelchair confined boy in his teens apparently posed a safety hazard for the flight because he was in a state of panic. There were doctors on board the flight who felt otherwise and suggested that[Read More…]
A few days ago, I happened to visit an ATM to withdraw some cash. The ATM was located in a busy marketplace and in a narrow space between two shops. The machine had to be reached by climbing a short flight of steps. At the glass fronted entrance there was a notice which referred to a Reserve Bank circular advising[Read More…]
Many benefits and schemes available for persons with various disabilities cannot reach them, particularly in more remote villages, as much effort is needed for linking persons with disabilities (PwDs) with the various schemes meant for providing relief and benefits to them . Due to past neglect the number of PwDs can be not only surprisingly high in several remote[Read More…]
The marginalised sections are ubiquitous in world societies. It is the feature of human history which has found its way through a historical process of marginalisation. Marginalisation pushed certain sections of society to the fringes of the social order. It is a systemic way of deprivation and discrimination. Such social groups have limited access to opportunities, restricted freedom of choice,[Read More…]
Very often it is our disabling attitudes that make life difficult for people with disabilities, rather than their own physical impairments. More than the disability itself, it is its psychological effects that take a bigger toll on the person, says wheelchair bound Tanzila Khan, a disability rights activist who founded GirlyThings.pk. Tanzila shared her anguish in lead up to the[Read More…]
India has roughly five crore incapacitated people. Persons with Disabilities (PwD) could in fact be as high as 5 – 6% of the total population. Almost half of them are uneducated and a significant number of that populace lives in rural areas. Differently-abled people deserve to progress in all facets of life- whether it is physical, economic, or social. They[Read More…]
The recently released circulars by NTA (national testing agency) and other institutions to conduct the entrance examinations is highly exclusionary in general and for the students with disabilities in particular. As we are aware that in the current crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, the students with disabilities have been particularly neglected by most of the universities as well as other[Read More…]
At the midnight hour, when the whole world slept, India woke to life and freedom in the emotional words of Nehru’. But, again, in the midnight hour, India will witness one of the most radical tax reforms – GST…! The government is ready to roll out GST from July 1 despite dissatisfaction from many quarters. One of the consequences[Read More…]
Disability is not a curse, for those who actually live with it. It’s ironical, that those who are so called “able bodied” time and again make persons with disabilities realize that they are disabled and they lack something which is very important for the survival of human beings on this earth. Based on my own experiences, I can say for[Read More…]
Deadly wildfire smoke spreads across much of northeast US 
Book Review: The Story of a People’s Movement 
Recession In Eurozone While UK Faces Highest Inflation In Developed World 
Patriotic Criminals and Anti-National Criminals 
Remembering NTR the politician in his centenary Year 
The US Shouldn’t Stand in the Way of an Ambitious Global Plastics Treaty 
France’s Global Warming Predicament 
The Spark 
Vanishing of Many Stretches of Aravalli Hills Will Prove Very Costly 
The End of Title 42 and the Triumph of the Border-Industrial Complex 
A New Direction for the World Bank? 
Conspiracy! Whose Conspiracy? 
Wrestlers’ struggle for justice : Will it endure? 
‘Digital India Bill’: Some things to worry about 
Electricity wasted in Mumbai as energy supply is cut off for hours in towns 
Samalkha Nestle Workers Union stage protest against preventing formation of Union 
Odisha rail accident- BSNL’s commendable performance- Should India diminish its public sector, allow private oligarchs to profiteer? 
Wildfire Smoke Chokes Canada and Eastern US 
Terracidal But Ignored Carbon Debt From Gas Exploitation By The World & Climate Criminal Australia 
China and Palestine: No To ‘Piecemeal Crisis Management’ 
Can China and the United States Establish Mutual Respect to Lessen Tensions? 
How Empire Fabricates Atrocities 
For Balanced Progress, Indian Railways Must Get Their Priorities Right 
Determining Scheduled Area: An Update 
The new Parliament house may be dangerously undemocratic 
Ranajit Guha: A duality of literature and history 
DIPAM’s hasty moves to disinvest the government’s residual share in HZL highly imprudent and against the public interest 
A Climate of Betrayal 
Deserving Each Other: The PGA Tour-LIV Golf Merger 
The World Economy Is Changing—the People Know, but Their Leaders Don’t 
Tribute to Chris Hani on 30th martyrdom Anniversary 
Proper Treatment of Rail Accident Victims Demands Long-term Commitment and Support 
What the Kailasa Con Job Reveals About the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case 
The writing is on the wall: Farmers warn Parliamentarians 
The End Stage of American Empire 
End the culture of impunity and arrest accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh now 
Brasilia summit: Lula and Maduro reboot regional integration 
Steaming Ahead: Sikkim’s First Rail Project to Boost Connectivity by 2024 
Five years behind bars for five activists 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
