The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. The Jammu and Kashmir HIgh Court has ruled that the minor allegedly molested by a soldier in Handwara and her parents should no longer be kept in police custody.
2. Both Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj claim credit for evacuating 29 Indians from Libya, triggering a war of words.
3. In the chargesheet to be filed on the 2008 Malegaon case, the National Investigating Agency will not name Sadhvi Pragya Singh, claim the investigation carried out by the Maharashtra ATS chief, the late Hemant Karkare, was flawed and drop all charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
The Big Story: The Jeeja Ghosh moment
Four years ago, Jeeja Ghosh, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was told to get off a SpiceJet flight going from Kolkata to Goa. The airline claimed there has been blood or foam oozing from the side of her mouth and that apparently violated guidelines. Ghosh denied the claim and went to court. On Thursday, the Supreme Court directed the airline to pay her Rs 10 lakh as damages for "mental and physical suffering", saying it had shown "unreasonable discrimination". As Ghosh herself points out, this is significant victory for the specially-abled community.
The discourse on disability has slowly evolved over the last few decades. Till the 1990s, India had no national policy on people with disabilities. This institutional myopia manifested itself in different ways, from the lack of jobs for such persons to the lack of ramps and supports in public places. The Persons with Disabilities Act was finally passed in 1995. It recognised seven types of disability, including "mental retardation" and "mental illness". The new Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, drafted in 2014, expands the list to 19 and takes a more radical approach to the issue, flowing from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities . It has been hailed as a progressive piece of legislation, shifting the focus from charity and welfare to rights and entitlements. Apart from ensuring political, legal and economic rights for such persons, it also tries to address social attitudes that have kept them marginalised.
But fears abound, especially after Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi reportedly said that persons with mental illnesses could not be employed in government jobs, triggering a campaign of protest. It is also apprehended that the government will dial back the 5% reservation in jobs guaranteed under the 2014 bill. The institutional fog that has lain over the issue for decades will not lift easily, which would explain why the recognition of disability rights has been such a long time coming. It is to be hoped that the Jeeja Ghosh judgement will push the government a little closer to these vital guarantees.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story
Nipun Malhotra talks about living life as a person with disability.
Nayantara Narayanan on the fears surrounding the disability bill.
Politicking and policying
1. Addressing a party convention in Varanasi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar calls for a "Sangh-free Bharat" and "liquor-free society".
2. A month after the Centre sent a water train to drought-hit Latur, the railways ministry has presented the district with a Rs 2 crore bill for services rendered.
3. The Supreme Court has ruled that in "heinous" crimes, juveniles must prove they are under 18.
Punditry
1. In the Hindu, Gopalkrishna Gandhi suggests that, after the episode in Uttarakhand, the president must sift through politically coloured recommendations for the imposition of Central rules.
2. In the Indian Express, Dev Lahiri on how education is confused with certification.
3. In the Telegraph, Chiranjib Sen draws attention to the policy lessons in the Bangalore garment workers' unrest.
Don't Miss...
Nandini Ramnath on how to define the new Bollywood film:
People in the Hindi movie trade usually refer to such projects “small” or “content-driven” films. These interchangeable terms are typically used for movies that lack A-list stars, conventional plots and high budgets. The slipperiness of this categorisation is evident from the fact that several midstream films have been funded and distributed by top-ranking studios. Kapoor & Sons, for instance, has been co-produced by Dharma Productions and Fox Star Studios and stars Fawad Khan, Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt. Its estimated budget was Rs 45 crores and it made over Rs 70 crores at the box office. Neerja, also from Fox Star Studios, stars Sonam Kapoor, was made on Rs 21 crores, and earned over Rs 65 crores. Queen, co-produced by Phantom Films and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, cost Rs 21 crores and raked in over Rs 60 crores.
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