EMPOWERMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: ROLE OF COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS

The above titled paper has been published in the Edited Book titled "SOCIAL WORK PRACTICES IN INDIA" in July 2020 with ISBN:978-93-88106-17-7.Brief details of the same include: 

ABSTRACT

Persons with Disabilities are the most marginalized affecting with stigma, bias, violence, crime and are isolated from mainstream development. In view of paradigm shift from welfare to empowerment with rights, Persons with Disabilities should be part of the inclusive and accessible community with equality, respect, dignity and justice and thus Community Organizations gains priority. Disability is unexpected in any family and do affect the dynamics of the family and community with more vulnerabilities for deepening poverty with poor quality of life. Disability in any family or community is treated as an additional burden as it needs special environment at all places. Poverty, Development and Disability works as a cause and consequence of each other and thus disability gains priority. Government came up with several Disability Acts & Polices to provide training and rehabilitation services and supports to Persons with Disabilities as an empowerment for independent living in an accessible and inclusive community. These processes also work for the prevention of the causes of disabilities to develop Disability Free Society. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and amended Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act provides several rights with the target of inclusion of Persons with Disabilities with equality, dignity and respect like their counterparts in the same community. In view of this, community gains priority as the strategies, interventions, and practices are need based matching to its resources and other dynamics. Community Based Organizations were emerged to work for the rehabilitation cum development of Disability Population with better participation, accountability, responsibility and transparency. Government, Private and Community Organizations working on partnership proved effective and efficient. The strategies, practices and interventions are community based and are simple, flexible, scalable, replicable and sustainable.      

Statement of the Study

Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) are the most marginalized affecting with stigma, bias, violence, crime etc., and are isolated from mainstream development. In view of paradigm shift from welfare to empowerment with rights, PWDs should be part of the inclusive and accessible community with equality, respect, dignity and justice and thus Community Organizations gains priority.   

GPC Partnership

It is the reality that, Disability is the subject of Government and do face several limitations in reaching disability population and for catering their needs. The key limitations include service delivery systems (SDSs) which are dominant of top down approaches (TDAs) and limited Resources. Knowing this, Government looks for the second player in the form of Private who can fill the gap in Resources to some extent but not in reaching the disability population. The process of working of Government with Private is well known as Public Private Partnership (PPP) which mostly works with large scale infrastructural projects like Dams, Airports, Metro Rail, Power Generation, Roads, and other such which mostly work on business model. With the provision of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Corporate gains priority for giving back (out of their profits) to the People and Community. It is the general observation that Government, Private and Corporate works for the empowerment of persons with disabilities staying away from them or the community. That is one on the key limitations in reaching and serving disability population. The search still continues to look for better alternative player  who stay within or very near to the community and that ends at Community Based Organizations (CBOs), or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), or Disabled Peoples Organizations (DPOs), or Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), or Parents Associations (PAs) which works as per the guidelines of Acts under which they got registered. The proposed partnership of Government, Private, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) known as Government Private and NGO (GPN) Partnership (GPNP).

Recommendations

In view of the dynamic needs of the Persons with Disabilities, the study needs to be continued and the recommendations made include: 

ü  Create Awareness on the mode of Advocacy on various aspect of Disabilities and ways to move forward to overcome the same.

ü  Encourage for multisectoral and multidisciplinary approaches and practices for effective and efficient service devilry systems both in rehabilitation and prevention of the causes of disabilities.

ü  Support Students and Edcuational Institutions for taking up Projects Works and Research Studies on various aspects of Disabilities with inclusive approaches and practices.

ü  Support to organize Trainings, Workshops, Conferences and Seminars on Disability as part of mainstreamed development.

ü  Facilitate for the development of Content and Publications both in Print and Electronic mode with better availability, accessibility, and affordability for all.

Support CBOs to work with Government, and Private (Corporate) on the mode of Partnership (GPCP).