For disabled citizens to have the police they deserve

News:  Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) has released draft guidelines for building disabled-friendly infrastructure in police stations, prisons etc.

Why does the need arise?

Effective policing is needed of the hour, and more so for the disabled who face challenges of accessibility. Even the Supreme Court had pointed out in Patan Jamal Vali vs The State of Andhra Pradesh case that women with disability are more prone to sexual violence.

What is provided in the MHA guidelines?

– It sets out models for building new police stations and upgrading old ones to modern, gender-sensitive, and accessible with features like disabled-friendly toilet or entrance, etc.

-Standards recognize that services and spaces must be barrier-free by design.

– Enable disabled people to enjoy their rights. It also talks about treating persons with disabilities who are accused of committing any crime in an appropriate way.

-Provide direction under disability-inclusive training for persons involved in disaster relief.

-It introduces accessibility norms for services associated with police stations and services. This helps to promote the use of ICT to facilitate communication, development of websites, use of ICT for enforcing accessible infrastructure, sign language, etc.

What are the inadequacies in the provisions?

First, the cover letter is embedded in an image, so for a screen reader, this could become difficult.

Second, directions for deployment for directional signage also need auditory signage for visually challenged.

Third, they provide recommendations like deploying one personnel to assist visually challenged, but this has been kept optional.

Fourth, standards state that police staff on civil duty could be persons with disability, but this is inconsistent with the memorandum issued by the Department of Empowerment for persons with disabilities in August 2021. According to it, 4% reservation is provided to persons with disabilities under government jobs like IPS, IRPF, and other services.

What are the suggestions provided by SC?

In the case of Patan Jamal Vali, SC suggested having special educators and interpreters be connected with police stations to operationalize reasonable accommodations embodied in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.

It further recommended suggesting up a database in every police station of such educators, interpreters and legal aid providers to facilitate easy access and coordination

What is the way forward?

Enacting the standards into law will mark a big step towards making our law enforcement apparatus disabled-friendly.

Source: This post is based on the article “For disabled citizens to have the police they deserve” published in The Hindu on 18th December 2021.