Various policies concerned to Children with Special Needs in the context of national and international deliberations are briefly looked into in this article to get a broad understanding of the related issues. Neither is it exhaustive nor comprehensive but hopefully it will serve as a starting point for someone like me who had no idea regarding policies on disability.

The Mental Health Act 1987
The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992
The Persons with Disabilities(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995
National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act (1999)
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (2008)
UNESCO Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education (2009)
The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (2009)
UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012

The Mental Health Act 1987

This act consolidates the law relating to the care and treatment of mentally ill persons. It makes provisions for the safeguard of their rights, property and welfare. It also makes guidelines for the guardianship of mentally ill persons. It mandates the establishment of central and state authorities for licensing, establishing and supervising the psychiatric hospitals. It provides detailed guidelines for taking the custody of mentally ill persons who are unable to look after themselves or are dangerous to themselves and others. It regulates the procedure of admission and discharge of mentally ill persons to psychiatric hospitals and the authorities established under Ministry of Home Affairs (1987) are empowered to inspect the hospitals or any services offered to mentally ill to ensure their rights and the quality.

Mental illness too is considered as a disability in the Persons With Disability Act (PWD, 1995). The implication of these two acts on the education of mentally ill children is not clearly understood.

The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992

The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) set up in 1986 was made a statutory body by the enactment of the above mentioned act on 22 June 1993. This act was amended in 2000 to make it more broad based. It is entrusted with regulating and monitoring services given to persons with disability, to frame appropriate curriculum and to maintain the database of all qualified personnels working in the field of Rehabilitation and Special Education of persons with disability.

It is necessary for institutions working for persons with disabilities to be recognised by the RCI. RCI sets the norms and guidelines for these Institutions and does the periodic assessments and accreditation for monitoring the quality. The curriculum that is offered in these institutions, courses of study and criteria for faculty appointment are all guided by the RCI norms for quality assurance.

Wide range of professionals like Audiologist and Speech Therapists, Clinical Psychologists, Hearing Aid and Ear Mould Technicians, Rehabilitation Engineers and Technicians, Special Teachers for Education and Training the handicapped, Vocational Counsellors, Employment Officers and Placement Officers dealing with handicapped, Multipurpose Rehabilitation Therapists, Technicians, Speech Pathologists, Rehabilitation Psychologists, Rehabilitation Social Workers, Rehabilitation Practitioners in Mental Retardation, Orientation and Mobility Specialists, Community Based Rehabilitation Professionals, Rehabilitation Counsellors/Administrators, Prosthetists and Orthotists, Rehabilitation Workshop Managers have to register themselves with the RCI to be eligible to practice their professions concerning persons with disability.

RCI Act was amended in 2000 to be in sync with the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. On the whole RCI is the apex governing body in India to ensure the quality of services offered to the persons with disability. It is also involved in promoting research in the area of disability. Its views on the inclusion of persons with special needs in regular schools is not known. How it is going to keep up with the same quality assurance and monitoring mechanism in the wake of Right to Education Act, 2009 also needs to be understood? Does it has the same authority over mainstream educational set ups in the country like the special schools is very unclear. As per RCI Act (1992) personnel dealing with persons with special needs without registering themselves are liable for punitive action. So the case of teachers handling the persons with disability in regular classrooms without registration is yet to be sorted. This confusion has severe negative consequences for the quality of education for those with special needs.

The Persons with Disabilities(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995

India became a signatory to the proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region during 1992 at the meeting in Beijing to launch the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002). To implement this proclamation the above mentioned act was enacted by the Indian parliament. This act defines disability as blindness, low vision, hearing impairment, leprosy cured, loco-motor disability, mental retardation and mental illness.

The act calls for the setting up of two committees at central and state level. one is the coordination committee and the other is an executive committee. Coordination committees are required to ensure the rights of persons with disability by advising different government bodies for necessary changes in the policy and practices and the executive committee is responsible for carrying out the decisions made by coordination committee.

It stresses on the significance of prevention of disability at the early stages itself and needs the government to screen all children at least once in a year to identify potential factors that may lead to disability in the long term. It also mandates the government to take all measures to prevent disability occurring at prenatal and postnatal stages. The act makes the government responsible for providing non-discriminatory environment like adapting railways, buses, road signals, building ramps, braille signs and auditory signals etc to suit the needs of Persons with disability.

The act also says that children with disability should be provided with free education until the age of 18 by the appropriate government. It says that government should make provisions for integrating these children in regular schools along with schools exclusively meant for them. It also requires state to make provisions for educating such children through non-formal education and vocational programmes. It mandates 3% of seats to be reserved in educational institutions and public sector employment.

National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act (1999)

As per the above act an autonomous organization was set up under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of Government of India. The National Trust was set up to find an answer to the worries of parents - “What will happen to my child when I am no more?” Here child refers to child with anyone of the disability like Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities. Given the inability of these children to make decisions in life it has provisions for their care and protection in the event of death of their parents or guardians. It has evolved comprehensive procedures for the appointment of guardians and trustees for persons with such disabilities. It also extends support to registered organizations to provide need based services during the period of crisis in the family of persons with such disability. Apart from this its other stated objectives are as follows.

To enable and empower persons with disability to live as independently and as fully as possible within and as close to the community to which they belong;
To strengthen facilities to provide support to persons with disability to live within their own families;
To deal with problems of persons with disability who do not have family support;
To facilitate the realization of equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of persons with disability.

It implements its objectives through government departments and local bodies, registered organizations and its own grassroot wing called local level committee at the district level.

How do we view the National Trust Act in the context of Inclusion of children with special needs in Education? It acknowledges the fact that there are going to be certain persons with disability who remain heavily dependent on the community for rehabilitation. Inclusion of children with special needs in education will help build a well informed community which can further play a proactive and vigilant role in the welfare of such people.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (2008)

As per this convention disability is seen as one which results from the interaction between a person’s impairment and obstacles like physical barriers and negative attitudes that prevent their participation in the society. It takes us from viewing persons with disabilities as objects of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing them as ones with rights, capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent while also being active members of society. So this convention marks a shift in the way disability is perceived, as a social welfare concern to a human rights issue. It aims to protect, promote and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disability. It emphasises that it is the social barriers and prejudice that are disabling not the impairment alone. Hence argues for accessibility, personal mobility, health, education, employment, habilitation and rehabilitation, participation in political life, equality and non discrimination for persons with disability. This convention sets the stage for full scale inclusion of the persons with disability with the mainstream society.

India is a signatory to this convention and it is legally binding to implement the legislation of the convention.

Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education (2009)

To serve as a resource for policymakers, teachers and learners, community leaders and members of civil society in their efforts to achieve Education for All goals, these policy guidelines were arrived through International Conference on Education in Geneva, Nov 2008.

Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO , Nicholas Burnett in the foreword to this document writes the aim of inclusion in education is to eliminate exclusion that is a consequence of negative attitudes and a lack of response to the diversity in race, economic status, social class, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation and ability. Inclusive education is considered as very central to the achievement of high quality education for all learners and the development of inclusive societies. Education of persons with special needs is placed here within the larger framework of many other factors which is very much essential to understand the issue holistically. This will initiate us to examine the issue in terms of religion, in terms of gender, poverty, race, ethnicity etc separately which enables us understand the status of persons with special needs from multiple perspectives. This multi perspective approach will be most effective way to ensure the rights of persons with special needs.

In this document inclusion in education and quality of education are said to be reciprocal (p. 10). In other words access (not just physical) and quality of education are mutually reinforcing. Further the quality of education is said to incorporate two important conceptual frameworks. One is the cognitive development of the learners and the other is the promotion of values and attitudes for responsible citizenship. Currently when we are in state of dilemma whether to educate persons with special needs in an exclusive educational setting or not. I identify the root cause of this dilemma or anxiety to the quality of education. Without enough training to the personnel in the mainstream educational setting, without necessary changes in the curriculum, without the functioning mechanisms already in place in terms of diagnosis, infrastructure and grievance redressal we are in a hurry to put all the diverse individuals in one place to meet international commitments on inclusion in education. The rights of persons with special needs will be better ensured in an exclusive quality educational provisions than in the poor quality mainstream education. So any attempt to bring in inclusion of persons with special needs should be preceded with improving the quality in the mainstream education.

Recognising curriculum as an important factor in Inclusion in education this document suggests inclusive curriculum to be based on the principles of non-discrimination, appreciation of diversity and fostering tolerance. It should also reflect the visions and goals of wider development of that country (p. 19). Such a curriculum will be sensitive to the diversity of issues mentioned already. So the emphasis is not on forcibly training or educating the persons with special needs to meet the criteria of standard curriculum instead it about evolving a curriculum that suits the needs of diversity in the pupil.

The document draws its attention towards negative attitudes of teaching and non teaching staff along with parents and the families of a pupil as a major barrier to the inclusion in education which has to be addressed through continuous in-service professional development (p. 20). Given the vulnerability of persons with specials needs the suitability of the personnel (both academic and non academic) who are made responsible for them should be ensured even before giving them the task of educating them.

India is a founding member of the UNESCO since 1946. Article VII of the constitution of UNESCO requires that “each Member State shall make such arrangements as suit its particular conditions for purposes of associating its principal bodies interested in educational, scientific and cultural matters with the work of the Organization”. Hence this document holds lot of significance in the way Indian state considers inclusion in education.
Also Inclusion in education is a direct consequence of various international conventions, recommendations and declarations for which India is a signatory. Here Inclusion explained and understood through Human Rights framework. The overview of these is illustrated below.

The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (2009)

Under this act now it is the right of the children with disabilities to avail free and compulsory education in regular schools. As per this act a child with disability is defined as follows:

A child with disability is to be included in the Act's definition of children belonging to a 'disadvantaged group'.
A child with 'disability' as defined in 1995 Persons with Disabilities Act
A child with 'disability' and 'severe disability' as defined in National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.

The provisions of the RTE for the disabled children are in consonance with the UNESCO guidelines on the Inclusion in Education. The problem arises in the implementation stage. Most public schools already had the issues with the quality of education provided. So the inclusion of children with special needs has only worsened the situation as per the status report RTE 2013. The following are the important findings related to the status of the RTE implementation with respect to the children with special needs (p. 177).

Most teachers in regular had no training with regard to the inclusion of children with special needs.
The infrastructure did not meet the needs of Children With Special Needs (CWSN) like toilets, drinking water facilities, ramps etc
The aids and appliances provided to the CWSN were of poor quality and the ones provided were kept in resource centres and children were not allowed to take them to their homes.
The visits by the special education teachers to the regular schools was very rare.
Regular schools had limited vision with respect to inclusion of CWSN.

Teacher shortages, very high pupil teacher ratio, non availability of special teachers on daily basis, non availability of learning resources suitable to CWSN are cited as major drawbacks in the implementation of RTE for CWSN.

UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012

The meaning of the word ‘Equity’ referred here in these regulations made by the UGC is same as the word ‘Inclusion’ referred in the above two documents. These regulations will apply to all the higher educational institutions in India. It says ‘Equity’ means a level playing field for all the students in respect of the entitlement and opportunity for enjoyment of all legitimate rights. It states such a level playing field will be free from any discrimination or harassment. These regulations define the word ‘Discrimination’ as any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality of treatment in education and in particular

of depriving a student or a group of students on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language, ethnicity, gender and disability of access to education of any type or at any level;
of imposing conditions on any student or group of students which are incompatible with the dignity of human; and
of subjecting to the provision of establishing or maintaining separate educational systems or institutions for students or groups of students based on caste, creed, religion, language, ethnicity, gender and disability.

Further the word ‘Harassment’ is defined as any unwanted conduct which persistently demeans, humiliates or creates a hostile and intimidating environment or which is calculated to induce submission by actual or threatened adverse consequences.

These regulations mandate every higher educational institutes to take appropriate measures to promote equality among students of all sections of the society. It further instructs to educate the educational fraternity and public by raising public awareness on the importance of equality and overcoming any form of discrimination and harassment against students belonging to various sections. The word ‘Equity’ is defined here through Human Rights framework which is same as what the word ‘Inclusion’ means.

References

Soni, R. B. L. (2013). Status of Implementation of RTE ACT-2009 in Context of Disadvantaged Children at Elementary Stage. New Delhi: NCERT. Retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/departments/nie/dee/publication/pdf/StatusreportRTE2013.pdf

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. (n.d.). The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. Retrieved from http://socialjustice.nic.in/pwdact1995.php

Mental Health Act, 1987 - Description. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.medindia.net/indian_health_act/mental-health-act-1987-description.htm

National Trust. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions on Disability. Retrieved from http://thenationaltrust.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77&Itemid=131&limitstart=5

Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs. (1992). The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 (No. 34 of 1992). New Delhi. Retrived from http://www.rehabcouncil.nic.in/writereaddata/rciact.pdf

United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml

UNESCO. (2009). Policy Guidelines on Inclusive Education. France: UNESCO. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001778/177849e.pdf

UGC. (2013). UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/2147890_gazetteequity-Eng.pdf