The central government has decided to make each of its 6,000 websites disabled-friendly. Under new government guidelines, the visually challenged will be able to use a “screen reader software” that will read out the text that appears on a computer monitor. People who have difficulty handling a mouse can use the “voice recognition software” to work the computer with verbal commands. The websites will provide features like “iconic learning” for those...

Marry into one of the lower castes and live happily — with the government’s blessings. The Centre has written to states to provide incentives to those who opt for inter-caste marriages in a bid to foster “a caste-less society”. Some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Bengal and Kerala, already give incentives to couples who marry outside their caste or religion, but the government wants all states to do so. However, one of...

Introduction The phenomenon of disability is one of the pressing problems in the world. According to the projections of international agencies, about 10 per cent of the population are affected with physical, mental, sensory and other forms of impairments and around 75 per cent of the disabled population are concentrated in the rural and inaccessible areas of the developing societies. This data is based on recent studies carried out in various...

The S.C. and S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has failed to make Dalits any safer. THE ascent of the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to power in Uttar Pradesh on May 13, 2007, was seen as a defining moment in the politics of Dalit empowerment in the country. The Scheduled Caste (S.C.) leader of an avowedly “Dalit assertive” party had been Chief Minister earlier too, but the difference this time...

West Bengal, Chhattisgarh are the best performers in providing jobs for the disabled, says govt data Bishnu Chaudhary and his wife Vijaya Devi, both stricken by polio, have been waiting for work for the past two years. But on 2 October, Chaudhary and others like him picked up the shovel to show that they too are able. “We wanted to show that we can also work, just like everyone else...