The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) has rejected the draft of the new law proposed by the government for differently-abled persons.Describing it as “mischievous and clever,” Javed Abidi, executive director of the disability rights group, has sought a “re-look” at the law, and demanded the disbanding of the 30-member committee that was asked to prepare the draft. The panel outsourced the job and asked the...

NAC failed to address hunger and malnutrition: Right to Food Campaign Current proposals only offer window-dressing to present Targeted Public Distribution System Arguments suggesting lack of resources cannot be accepted, wrote Campaign members The Right to Food Campaign activists are “extremely disappointed” with the recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on the proposed Food Security Bill and have said they would continue their struggle for a Comprehensive Food Security Act. Urging the NAC...

The NAC proposals for the food security bill are narrow and lack in vision. What is needed is a comprehensive bill with universalisation of PDS and a focus on child malnutrition.   There was much excitement when food security became one of the issues in the manifestos of most major political parties in the run up to the 2009 General Elections. With burgeoning food stocks, double-digit food inflation, stagnant malnutrition rates, declining...

The Right to Food Campaign said on Thursday that it was “extremely disappointed” with the recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on the proposed Food Security Bill and that it would continue its struggle for a Comprehensive Food Security Act. Urging the NAC to “reconsider” its decisions, the Campaign said that the main objective of the proposals seems to be to minimise the budgetary and foodgrains burden of the [proposed]...

In an unprecedented United Nations-supported initiative, people who cannot see and those who have other forms of visual disability will have access to published works through publisher intermediaries who will create accessible formats of publications and share them with specialized libraries. The new arrangement was announced today at the of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) meeting in the Indian capital, New Delhi. It is estimated that only five percent of...