Wednesday, January 8, 2014

A Comedian with Disability committed to disability awareness: Maysoon Zayid

Dear Friends,

I am greatly impressed by the eloquence of this Palestinian woman from New Jersey Ms. Maysoon Zayid - a writer, actor, comedian and co-founder of New York Arab-American Comedy Festival.

She shatters the myths and stereotypes associated with persons with disabilities in no time and you can not but return much more sensitized and knowledgeable about yourself, about your own beliefs about persons with disabilities and their abilities.

I am sure you would love to see this embeded video herein below:



Lack of Political Will disables Persons with Disabilities

Here is a balanced piece from Economic and Political Weekly

Disabled by Lack of Political Will
The government’s failure to table the Disabilities Bill in Parliament is unforgivable.

For the estimated 70 million disabled people in India, the government’s failure to table the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill in Parliament in the winter session was another act of cruel neglect and one that their representative organisations are gearing up to tackle. For the four years that it took for the bill to be drafted, disability rights’ advocacy groups and activists kept the pressure up. The approval of the draft bill by the union cabinet on 12 December 2013 raised their hopes only to be dashed. With general elections looming ahead and the uncertainty of how much legislative business will be conducted at the next session, these activists fear that their efforts would simply be washed away. Protests and agitations were held to demand that the bill should be taken up in the February session even as the disabled bitterly pointed out that politicians do not seem to count them as a valued vote bank.

The disabled in India are “invisible”, not to politicians alone; society at large disregards the disabled. Since they do not easily fit into the sociocultural expectations of what “normal” men and women should be like, the disabled are either to be pitied and dealt with charitably or shunned and ignored. To a certain extent, this
attitude was challenged by the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 which was considered landmark legislation at the time. However, while this Act did go a small distance in ensuring greater acceptance of the rights of the disabled to employment, not only its implementation but also its scope left much to be desired. It relies too much on the state’s initiative in framing schemes for the disabled while emphasising their vulnerabilities rather than on enhancing their capabilities. It also leans heavily towards the medical approach, emphasising the physical disabilities and tending to view
welfare measures as the solution. It is a familiar experience that most government schemes aimed at a particular section of society suffer from lack of coordination and dovetailing of the efforts of the various agencies at work. Another area that needs attention is the one to do with the socio-economic vulnerabilities of the parents/ guardians/caregivers of the disabled.

A number of crucial areas are also out of the 1995 Act’s ambit, like the problems faced by disabled women, disabled persons’ accessibility to cultural activities and sports, their preschool and higher education, the rights of the mentally ill (here too the women have special vulnerabilities) and many other nuanced rights that are taken for granted by the non-disabled. Disability rights’ groups wanted a comprehensive legislation that would be in keeping with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which India has ratified and which stresses fundamental rights. Also, this new legislation would have to be hinged on the non-negotiable rights approach rather than doling out concessions. The Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment’s proposal to amend the 1995 Act came under fire and thus work began on drafting the new bill.

The 1995 Act however helped to bring the rights and problems of the disabled into public and media discourse and also helped different rights groups to band together on a common platform to a large extent. It must also be noted here that this law suffers from the usual problem of implementation which depends again to a great extent on a sensitive bureaucracy and committed politicians. While looking at the general rights approach however, the gargantuan problems faced by the disabled in finding employment cannot be ignored. Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered a minimum of 3% reservation for them in all central and state government jobs. The significance of the SC’s order lies in the fact that it quashed the central government’s 2005 office memorandum and claim that reservation for the disabled must be restricted to “identifi ed” posts. The apex court ruled that the reservation must be on the basis of the total number of vacancies in a particular cadre rather than posts identified by the government. The SC pointed out that employment is an important
feature of empowerment and inclusion of the disabled and it was lack of employment that forced this section to live in poverty and fail to contribute to family and community.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2012 has won the thumbs up on most counts since it has tried to do away with the shortcomings in the 1995 Act. However, there are a few aspects like that of inclusive education of the disabled and their employment in certain identifi ed posts that have been flagged by some
disability rights advocates as areas that need to be reworked. These and related issues need to be discussed widely once the bill is tabled in Parliament. Will the government ensure that the hopes and aspirations of the disabled are not dashed and the efforts of all those who have worked on the bill do not go in vain?

Source:  Economic and Political Weekly

IRDA proposes life insurance cover for persons with disabilities

Dear Friends,

After the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi's judgement in a related matter on Insurance (Refer my blog entry titled "Extra Premium for Insurance or Reduced Insurance amount- both are discriminatory against the employees with disabilities), wherein the Hon’ble court agreed that charging extra premium from employees with disabilities was indeed a discrimination on the basis of disability and therefore it directed the postal life insurance to provide equal insurance coverage and not charge extra premium from the employees with disabilities, the regulator IRDA is working on a proposal for life to cover the persons with disabilities.

However, what I see from the proposal, certain categories of disabilities, particularly that are not static and likely to change, say for example a person with mental illness (under rehabilitation), or a person with low vision - likely to turn completely blind, will continue to face discrimination.

The problem is the actuaries are not trained in to this aspect of disability and the potential of persons with disabilities. Life can be uncertain for you and me alike irrespective of disabilities, but actuaries tend to presume that a person with disability is more likely to die in comparison to non-disabled is actually a myth.

I had indicated the road ahead in the earlier post after the Court judgement which I am reproducing here:


The Road Ahead
I see this judgment  as a milestone in the disability rights movement with far reaching implications not only in India but also beyond India and especially in European countries where the Actuaries continue to discriminate against persons with disabilities by under-valuing their lives. However, India, its Courts and the persons with disabilities are very progressive on this front and the western countries can follow suit at least on this count.
This is just a beginning. We need a well devised future strategy  to dismantle the entire regime of discrimination that is prevailing in the insurance sector and the immediate challenges are:
(a) The insurance sector still discriminates on the basis of etiology of the disability i.e. from birth and after birth; neurological or physical and rates their lives accordingly which has again no scientific base.
(b) The persons with neurological disabilities are still not allowed any insurance policy and needs to be challenged.
(c) PLI is an insurance scheme for the benefit of government employees hence it will cover a very small section of citizens with disabilities. Those who are outside the government jobs especially those in rural areas are far away from reaping the benefits of insurance.
(d) The Actuaries who are in the business of assessing the life risks are not aware of the real challenges and the lives of the persons with disabilities and they continue to live in their own world and decide on their own whims, the risk calculation of the life of a person with disabilities. They need to be sensitized and made aware.
(e) The entire literature on insurance that I had to read while pursuing this case from outside reinforced the stereotypes about persons with disability and their proneness to accident. Hence, we need new literature for future actuaries to understand that Disability can not be treated always as a negative health profile. And that living with disability was distinct from suffering from a life threatening disease.
(f) There is a need to raise awareness that a person with visual impairment or with hearing impairment or with neurological impairment also enjoys good health like anybody else.
(g) The rules of Insurance sector needs to be changed in light of this judgement and applied across the sector. All insurance  issuing companies - be it private or government have to factor in the principals of this judgement and make amends.
(h) We need to take this awareness to the most marginalized persons with disabilities in rural areas through several means. 

I am sure we all are up for it and would take this to its logical end. Here is  news coverage regarding the IRDA proposal from Business Standard:-

Currently, there are no definitive guidelines defining the cover for people with disability
M Saraswathy  |  Mumbai  January 4, 2014 Last Updated at 00:32 IST

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) is looking to bring out a proposal for providing life insurance cover for the differently abled. While disability is not explicitly excluded from life insurance policies, there are no definitive guidelines defining the cover for such individuals.

“The proposal is at a discussion stage at the actuarial department. We will soon bring out a discussion paper on this,” said a senior IRDA official. This proposal will first be presented as a paper to life insurers for their feedback and then, detailed guidelines would be formulated.

At present, disability insurance is provided under personal accident policies by general insurance companies. Here, the policy provides for income replacement if the policyholder gets physically injured in any accident leading to loss of income for the family.  Disability is also covered by life insurance companies, wherein a cover is provided for accidental disability. These products are offered both, as a policy and as a rider with an insurance plan. If anything happens to the insured during the policy tenure, the insurance company pays him/her a lump-sum amount. However, this does not provide any protection for disabilities existing from one's birth or early childhood.

Insurance sector officials said that there, the regulator would clearly define what is disability, the types of disability-permanent or ongoing. The various ailments are also expected to be classified either as static and permanent, which would include polio and physical disability like loss of sight at birth, loss of hand/leg at birth among others. Other types of ongoing ailments like severe Hepatitis B, cancer of the last stages and severe damage to the lungs or heart would be put into a separate category.

“While permanent and static disability is expected to be included as the category that would be covered by life insurance, progressive and critical stages of ailments are likely to be excluded from coverage. This is because such ailments are very risky to be covered, from an insurance perspective,” said a senior life insurance official.

Officials close to this development said that at a future stage, when there is adequate data and research on these ailments, such patients could be provided life insurance cover, albeit at a higher premium.

Not all types of cancer are excluded from life insurance coverage. While patients in the last stages of such life-threatening diseases are excluded from life insurance coverage, others at an early stage are not denied a cover. These patients usually pay 30-40 per cent higher premium than regular policyholders, due to the higher risk involved in their coverage.  
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