{"id":22726,"date":"2024-10-01T01:17:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=22726"},"modified":"2025-10-06T11:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T05:51:11","slug":"rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It was enacted in the year 2016 and came into force on 19th April, 2017.<\/li>\n<li>It <strong>replaced the Persons with Disabilities<\/strong> (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights, and Full Participation) <strong>Act, 1995.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The objective of the RPwD Act is to ensure that all persons with disabilities can lead their lives with dignity, without discrimination, and with equal opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>The Act lays down specific provisions to uphold such rights.<\/li>\n<li>It <strong>incorporates the rights<\/strong> of persons with disabilities <strong>covered under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), <\/strong>to which <strong>India is a signatory.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Under the Act, <strong>disability<\/strong> has been <strong>defined as an evolving and dynamic concept<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>types of disabilities<\/strong> have been <strong>increased<\/strong> from existing <strong>7 to 21,<\/strong> and the <strong>Central Government <\/strong>will have the<strong> power to add<\/strong> more types of disabilities.\n<ul>\n<li>The types of disabilities <strong>include Leprosy Cured Person<\/strong>, <strong>Cerebral Palsy<\/strong>, Acid Attack Victims, <strong>Blindness, Deaf<\/strong>, Specific Learning Disabilities, <strong>Autism<\/strong> Spectrum Disorder, <strong>Parkinson\u2019s Disease<\/strong>, Haemophilia, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Persons with &#8220;<strong>benchmark disabilities<\/strong>&#8221; are defined as those certified to have <strong>at least40 percent of the disabilities<\/strong> specified.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rights and entitlements:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Responsibility has been cast upon the appropriate governments to take effective measures to ensure that persons with disabilities (PwDs) enjoy their rights equally with others.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Additional benefits<\/strong> have been provided <strong>for persons with benchmark disabilities<\/strong> and those with high support needs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Every childwith a benchmark disability<\/strong> between the age group of <strong>6 and 18 years <\/strong>shall have the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/rte-act\/\" target=\"_blank\">right to free education<\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>5% reservation<\/strong> in seats in <strong>Government and Government aided <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/higher-education-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\">higher educational institutions<\/a> for persons with benchmark disabilities.<\/li>\n<li>Stress has been given to ensure <strong>accessibility in public buildings<\/strong> (both Government and private) in a prescribed time-frame.<\/li>\n<li><strong>4% reservation in Government jobs<\/strong> for certain persons or class of persons with <strong>benchmark disability.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Guardianship<\/strong>: The Act provides for the <strong>grant of guardianship by the District Courtor<\/strong> any <strong>authoritydesignated by the State Government<\/strong> under which there will be <strong>joint decision<\/strong>\u2013making <strong>between the guardianandthe PwDs.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Broad-based <strong>Central and State Advisory Boards<\/strong> on Disability to be set up as policy-making bodies.<\/li>\n<li>The Act provides for the <strong>strengthening of the Office of Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities <\/strong>and the <strong>State Commissioners of Disabilities,<\/strong> which will <strong>act as regulatory bodies<\/strong> and <strong>Grievance Redressal agencies<\/strong> and also monitor the implementation of the Act.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>These Offices will be assisted by an Advisory Committee comprising of experts in various disabilities.\n<ul>\n<li>Creation of <strong>National and State Fund <\/strong>to provide <strong>financial support to the PwDs<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Penalties for offences:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Act provides for penalties for <strong>offences committed against PwDs <\/strong>and also for violations of the provisions of the new law.<\/li>\n<li>Any person who violates provisions of the Act, or any rule or regulation made under it, shall be punishable with imprisonment up to six months and\/ or a fine of Rs 10,000, or both.<\/li>\n<li>For any subsequent violation, imprisonment of up to two years and\/or a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs five lakh can be awarded.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Whoever intentionally insults<\/strong> or <strong>intimidates a PwD<\/strong> or <strong>sexually exploits<\/strong> a woman or child with a disability, shall be <strong>punishable with imprisonment<\/strong> between six months to five years and fine.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Special Courts<\/strong> will be designated <strong>in each district<\/strong> to handle cases concerning violations of the rights of PwDs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Q1: What is Leprosy?<\/h2>\n<p>Leprosy, also known as Hansen\u2019s disease, is a chronic infectious disease caused by a type of bacteria, Mycobacterium leprae. The disease predominantly affects the skin and peripheral nerves. Left untreated, the disease may cause progressive and permanent disabilities. It is more common in tropical and subtropical areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barandbench.com\/news\/supreme-court-dismal-implementation-right-of-persons-with-disabilities-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Supreme Court aghast by dismal implementation of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The objective of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act) is to ensure that all persons with disabilities can lead their lives with dignity, without discrimination, and with equal opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}