THE Disability Rights Organisations, on January 12, released a joint statement declaring their unequivocal opposition to the discriminatory NPR, NRC and CAA.

The statement said that the disabled citizens of India view the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 as being violative of the fundamental principles of the Indian constitution.  It reminded that the preamble, citizenship provisions (Article 5 to 11) and the section on fundamental rights in the Indian constitution underline the principles of equality and non-discrimination. “The CAA is not a mere change in the statute but is a law that seeks to fundamentally alter the character of the Indian republic. Indian citizenship flows from the constitution of India that grants it as a fundamental right. A right cannot be religion specific or country of origin specific,” said the statement.

They said that the CAA, NPR and NRC are intricately connected, where the NPR will be clearly feeding into the development of the NRC. They said that they are apprehensive about the questions related to parents’ date and place of birth that have been added to the NPR. “Many of us, disabled, who for a variety of reasons have been abandoned, dislodged from our homes, homeless, stay in segregated colonies, or are permanently housed in institutions, would not be able to provide many of the details asked for in the questionnaire, apart from backing it with valid proofs,” they said.
In their statement, the disability rights organisations said that they are also worried, as after the enumeration, the information will be cross checked with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to verify the individual’s biometrics. Experience shows that the problems of mismatch of Aadhaar generated biometrics have deprived lakhs of poor and disabled of their entitlements. Additionally, lakhs of disabled have not been able to enroll for Aadhaar due to a variety of problems, they pointed.

Highlighting their concerns about Aadhaar verification, they said that once the data is entered into the local population register, and the local registrar marks anyone of us as ‘doubtful’ for any reason, they will be forced to undertake umpteen trips to the concerned offices (which will doubtlessly be inaccessible and pose multiple hurdles) with proof of citizenship. “Many disabled people do not even have birth certificates leave alone the details of previous generations,” they said.

“We saw during the Assam NRC, that no document that proves our identity – birth certificate, Aadhaar, Voter ID, PAN card, or passport was by itself accepted as a proof of citizenship. Errors in spellings and their mismatch also leads to problems. Additionally, the person trying to prove citizenship, will also have to provide proof of the status of parents’ citizenship. For all this, we will be made to run from pillar to post,” the statement said.

They said that they have experienced severe difficulties and insurmountable hurdles even in procuring disability certificates. Procuring additional certificates in an entirely disabled unfriendly environment would mean putting them to immense hardships and mental trauma, they said.
“As organisations working on the issue of disability and people with disabilities, we are also equally concerned about the serious and long-term mental health issues that the process of NPR/NRC/CAA is already having and is likely to have, on all concerned residents of India,” the statement said and called for a complete halt to the NPR/NRC process.

Pledging to stand united in the fight against the CAA, the disability rights organisations extended their unflinching support and solidarity to the various movements that are going on against the CAA/NPR/NRC exercise. They also pledged to read the preamble of the constitution on January 26.