TVHE OICEJan-June 2004 Vol XIII No.1 OF FOD A PUBLICATION BY FAMILY OF DISABLED Rs. 30.00 Elections 2004 Javed Abidi shows the way Japan The barrier-free country War Wounded Foundation For the disabled warriors Onkar Nath Sharma A Powerhouse Indo-Pak Blind Cricket Series READ AND RELAY THE PUBLICATION The VOICE of FOD Jan-June 2004 5 TVHE OICE CONTENTS OF FOD Editorial 7 Editor and Publisher: Rajinder Johar Fighting Election Wasn’t So Bad 8 Rajinder Johar Sub-editors : War Wounded Foundation : Succour for Disabled Soldiers 12 Preeti Johar Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Vijay Oberoi Rubina Mohan A Powerhouse 15 Members : K.B. Mahajan Gautam Haridas Mrinalini Dayal An Odyssey to Japan 17 Rina Kumar Sanjeev Sachdeva and Anjlee Agarwal R.S. Bhandari Swaran Gambhir Unbreak my Heart 19 Source : Internet State Chapter Conquer 19 Karnataka : A poem by Harshita Tripathi 418, 1st Main, 1st Block, R.T. Nagar, Bangalore-560032 Hyperactive Child it could be ADHD 20 Tel: 080-23330200, 23535787 Source : The Times of India Fax: 6615101 E-mail: [email protected] Development of Employment Opportunities Coordinator : Ali Khwaja for Persons with Disabilities 21 Dr. Papia Lahiri Editorial and FOD Registered Office: B-1/500, Janakpuri, News 25 New Delhi-110058, India Tel: 91-11-25597328, 51570140 Proud to be an Indian 37 E-mail: [email protected] George Abraham [email protected] Web: www.familyofdisabled.org Questions and Answers 38 Letter to the Editor 39 Printed by : Mayur Enterprises Dr. Rohit Jain WZ-Plot No. 3, Gujjar Market, Monotony 39 Tihar Village, New Delhi-110 018 Do not Give Up Tel: 91-11-25121512, 28121637 Poems by Manmohan Dhar Cover Page: Javed Abidi at the hustings (Top) Book Review 41 Beneficiaries of War Wounded Foundation (Below) Dr. V.S. Bole and Shashi Katyal Sketches by Arveend Budh Singh Believe it or Not! And Health Capsules... Classifieds 42 Courtesy ‘The Times of India’ The views and opinions expressed in this issue are New Perspectives 43 of the authors themselves. Anubhav Rajput and Gaurav Singh Our sincere thanks to the members, volunteers, Team FOD supporters and well wishers of FOD for their continuing precious assistance in running its Looking Back 44 existing projects and launching the new ones. This issue of The Voice... is sponsored by Krishnan family of Surajkund, Haryana Mr. V. Krishnan and Mrs. Parvathi Krishnan inaugurating the website of Family Of Disabled at their office in Defence Colony, New Delhi Jan-June 2004 Editorial The VOICE of FOD 7 So Much for the Disabled People! he new government is in place following general elections to the 14th Lok Sabha. During the hustings, scores of national and regional political parties came out with their manifestoes but all of Tthem, in weird unanimity, were silent on the issue of the welfare of the disabled people who comprise around five per cent of the country's population. Simply because of they being disorganised, dependent on others and their inability to rally behind political parties, disabled people are not considered a vote bank and so they are rudely ignored. Otherwise, the organised strength of voters with different disabilities can send at least 20 MPs to the parliament. Still, disability is the odd card that no party desires to play unlike the case of caste, community, religion, etc. For over half a century the legislature has been immune to the needs of disabled people even though the former prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru suffered a stroke in the concluding phase of his tenure and ex- chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Govind Ballabh Pant had Parkinson's disease. As these VVIPs' special needs were well attended to, they could not appreciate the challenges a common man with disability faces. India has significantly progressed in various fields including medical and health but sadly lags behind in rehabilitation of the disabled people. Even their basic needs do not receive due attention from the concerned quarters and they are compelled to seek judicial intervention. In one case, even routine prosthesis and medication had to be sought via intervention of the Delhi High Court. These days the courts are being frequently petitioned by the disabled people for redressal of their essential requirements like discrimination at work, compensation, admission in teaching institutions, disabled-friendly environment, etc. It is also a harsh fact that even IAS officers had been discriminated against on account of disability and were forced to seek justice through the Supreme Court. Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of United Progressive Alliance, had been showing great concern and care for the disabled people through Rajiv Gandhi Foundation which she heads. Now that there is a Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, the expectations of disabled fraternity are bound to rise manifold, especially in the areas of education and employment, one of the main issues, on which the recent elections were contested and won. While constituting his cabinet of ministers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would have done well to entrust the welfare of disabled people to Ajit Jogi, MP from Chhattisgarh and S. Jaipal Reddy the minister for information and broadcasting. Jogi is currently leading a wheelchair life and is recuperating from spinal injury and Reddy has a locomotor disability. A separate ministry for the purpose would not have been a bad idea either. They already have it in Canada. We need it all the more for our five crore disabled citizens. Arpita Ghosh, Atul Jain and Ravinder Nayar extended their valued help in bringing out this issue of The Voice… There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity. Douglas Macarthur 8 Jan-June 2004 The VOICE of FOD Fighting Election Wasn’t So Bad JAVED ABIDI, covenor, Disabled Rights Group and executive director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for the Disabled People, fought the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Though he lost, he considers it a success in terms of being able to convince the electorate of the need for genuine efforts in mainstreaming the people with disabilities. Abidi, 39, has emerged as a staunch activist and a voice for crores of disabled people who have been hitherto denied their rightful place in the society. RAJINDER JOHAR interviews Abidi on his experiences while contesting as an independent candidate. Javed Abidi with his supporters during election campaign What made you contest this year's We chose New Delhi because of How did your family and friends Lok Sabha Elections? And why did two considerations: (a) it is a react to your decision to contest? you choose New Delhi constituency? small constituency easier to They were convinced that I was canvass in a short time and with As soon as the general elections mad! Initially they were all quite limited resources; and (b) it is a taken aback. They worried for me. were announced, there was a big highly literate constituency But, once they realised that I was debate in the disability sector as to therefore, people should be more serious, they not only accepted my what should be our stand should aware of social issues. decision but also actively we restrict our role to advocacy You fought as an independent supported me. vis-à-vis the Election Commission candidate. Did you try for a and vis-à-vis the political parties ticket from any political party? What were the issues raised by or should we ourselves jump in you? What was your manifesto ? No. It was a decision-in-principle the fray! One thing was clear this The main issue of course was taken by the Disabled Rights time that, we should not be on the disability. But, I also focused on Group (DRG) that the disability fringes; but should be right there, clean electoral practices that sector should maintain its own in the middle of the action. 'politics' is not necessarily a bad independent identity. 70 per cent of Indians will qualify as poor and the below poverty line 26 per cent will qualify as worse than chronically poor. Abusaleh Shariff, chief economist, and head, human development programme, at the National Council of Applied Economic Research The VOICE of FOD Jan-June 2004 9 word. I focused sharply on the support I got from all my friends, mass movement. Sometimes at a various problems faced by the colleagues and peers. People very very short notice, we have to New Delhi constituency and how really went out of their way. It organise dharnas and rallies with it has been wrongly labelled as a was a huge emotional hundreds of disabled people. If I VIP constituency. experience, one that I will really was all that 'inaccessible', remember and cherish for the What have you achieved by why would people respond so rest of my life. contesting the election? Are you willingly and so selflessly to my satisfied with the results? What In the history of parliamentary call? stood between you and the elections, has anybody ever But I do understand your point victory? fought an election from a also. I accept I have got very little wheelchair? Were you We were able to raise the profile of comfortable canvassing from a time during the course of the day disability as an issue. It was right wheelchair? Did you also and I like to use every minute there on the main political pages of address rallies or road side judiciously; secondly, I genuinely most mainstream national meetings ? want that people should not over- newspapers throughout the estimate me, that there should be a election campaign. A fairly large Honestly, I am not so sure. But I second line of leadership, people don't think that anyone from the chunk of the general population, at must trust all our other senior disability sector or for that matter least in Delhi, was made aware of officers, like say Rama Chari and disability issues and perhaps a known disability activist has Sakina.