Centre proposes to tighten requirements for disability certificates

Government proposes stricter requirements for disability certificates, including mandatory identity proof and medical authority involvement, amid controversy over fake certificates.

In a bid to tighten the requirements for obtaining a disability certificate, the Union government on Wednesday published draft amendments to the Rules of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD Act) of 2016.

The proposed changes — including mandatory identity proof, medical authority involvement, and a longer process — come in the wake of the row over Puja Khedkar, a dismissed IAS probationer accused of faking her disability certificate, among other transgressions. Government sources told The Hindu that this controversy was among the factors considered while drafting the amendments.

The amended Rules will require people with disabilities to mandatorily submit proof of identity, a photo not older than six months, and an Aadhaar card. The draft amendments propose that only medical authorities be considered competent to receive and process applications for disability certificates, further suggesting that the time taken to process each application should be increased from one to three months.   

Experts and activists in the disability sector said that these proposed amendments will not do much to tackle the menace of fake disability certificates, which they argued was a result of systemic corruption. Instead, they said, the potential new Rules will make it harder for genuine applicants to get through the system.  

These amendments to the Rules governing the RPwD Act, 2016 were published by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in The Gazette of India as a draft and made public on Wednesday for objections and suggestions from members of the public. Comments must be sent to Vineet Singhal, Director, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities within 30 days.

Last year, the government had first made it mandatory for all PwDs to have a UDID card for availing benefits, and then made Aadhaar a requirement for all UDID cards.

While the current Rules require applicants for a disability certificate to submit only proof of residence and recent photographs, the proposed amendments make more documentation mandatory, specifying that the photos must not be older than six months, and adding the requirement for a proof of identity and an Aadhaar number (or enrolment number).