Railways certs amend ‘retardation' to ‘intel disability'
NEW DELHI: A father's fight for the dignity of his daughter, who has 65% intellectual disability, which made the court of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities (CCPD) issue directives to remedy the situation, has led to the
Indian Railways
replacing the use of 'mental retardation' with 'intellectual disability' on railway concession certificates.
A disability rights advocate, Pankaj Maru had failed to get a response from railways regarding the terminology used in the concession certificate issued to his daughter, Sonu (26). On July 12 last year, he filed a complaint with court of CCPD regarding the description of his daughter's disability —
'mansik roop se vikrit'.
'Use of derogatory terms go against SC guidelines'
This (the terminology issue) was despite Pankaj Maru submitting the unique disability ID card of his daughter along with the application, wherein her disability was described as intellectual disability, in keeping with provisions of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.
In its final order Thursday, CCPD said the Railway Board had informed court on July 14 that an instruction dated May 9has been issued stating ministry of railways has decided to replace the term 'mentally retarded persons' with 'persons with intellectual disability'.
The change has been implemented from June 1. CCPD emphasised the criticality of language in ensuring dignity of people with disabilities. While noting that the board had already issued a circular in 2018 whereby words such as 'blind', 'deaf and dumb' and 'physically challenged' were replaced with terms prescribed in RPwD Act, the court has recommended that railways should review their existing forms and all other documents to determine if similar corrections are required to be made and to ensure that the existing stationery is not used for any certification in future.
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CCPD cited the concern raised by Maru in his complaint that outdated and derogatory terms like 'handicapped' still appear in preprinted concession certificate format, which goes against SC's guidelines on respectful disability terminology. CCPD has sought an action-taken report within three months and also asked railways to sensitise its staff on types and sub-types of disabilities.
In its observations in the case in Feb, CCPD had countered railways' interpretation of legal provisions as reason for continuing with the use of 'mental retardation' in concession forms.
It noted that the 'Railway Board's contention that intellectual disability and mental behaviour have been separately defined in the Schedule to RPwD Act, 2016 is correct, but their averment that 'retardation' is defined under 'mental behaviour' is not. In fact, the definition of 'mental behaviour' in the schedule of the law explicitly excludes 'retardation'.'
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