Even after almost an year the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) Act 2016, came into effect, the Government is still busy finalising guidelines for assessment of new categories of specified disabilities included in the legislation.
The delay means that those persons included in the new categories of disabilities in the new legislation will have to wait more to avail the benefits of the Government schemes such as job reservation, college admission or medical facilities.
However, parents of Autism kids need not wait for final guidelines as the Government has decided to continue for time being with the (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) DSM-IV based tool in the guidelines for diagnostic criteria for people with Autism. DSM-IV was notified by the Union Social, Justice and Empowerment Ministry in April last year.
“The decision to continue with the DSM-IV was done after the experts said that the DSM-V based tool for certification of autism is not fully tested and it would be appropriate to continue with DSM-IV based tool,” said sources in the Union Health Ministry which is in loop with the Social, Justice and Empowerment Ministry for suggesting guidelines for assessment of the 21 categories of specified disabilities in the Act.
However, for other new categories which were included in the Bill that replaced the existing PwD Act, 1995, enacted 21 years ago are still being given final shape. A meeting is likely to be held on Wednesday when the officials from both the concerned ministries and experts from various sub-committees set up to frame guidelines for for assessment of 21 specified disabilities.
On October 10, these panels made presentations before the Secretary of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. These sub-committees representated various categories like locomotor Disability (covering locomotor disability, leprosy cured persons, cerebral palsy, dwarfism, muscular dystrophy and acid attack victims,) Visual Impairment (blindness and low vision) and Hearing Impaired (hearing impaired, deaf and hard of hearing and speech and language disability).
Other sub-panels represented Intellectual Disability (intellectual disability and specific learning disability), mental illness (mental illness), Chronic Neurological Conditions (chronic neurological conditions, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease), Blood Disorder (haemophilia, thalassemia and sickle cell disease) and Multiple Disabilities (multiple disability).
Sources said that the guidelines proposed for locomotor disabilities are primarily based on the WHO prescribed scale for assessment of disabilities while for others, these are based on widely applicable assessment scale/tool in India and abroad.
In case of mental illness, the experts have suggested a minimum period of two years for the purpose of certification. A provision of temporary certification in acute cases has also been proposed for incorporation in the guidelines.
As under locomotor disability guidelines, assessment of conditions due to neurological conditions has also been proposed, experts are now reworking on guidelines on these categories of disabilities that included chronic neurological conditions, multiple scleroisis and Parkinson’s disease.