Right to Education for Persons With Disabilities in India: An Analysis of the Contemporary Legal Developments

Abstract

Education is the major source for getting enlightened individually and achieving National development collectively. It is a universally acknowledged fact that without knowledge no wealth and power can be beneficial for anyone in the contemporary world for which the Right to Education for everyone becomes an essential human right. Based on this notion Indian Constitution has made the Right to Education a Fundamental Right to be accessible equally for everyone based on the Principles of Equal Opportunities and Intelligible Differentia. Likewise, several laws and policies were enacted and institutions were established to make such rights accessible to every section of the society through an integrated and common education system without any discrimination based on race, color, age, sex, etc. However, all individuals within a society are not equally capable, certain sections do suffer from physical or mental disabilities that remain at the receiving end when the distribution of the Nation’s resources is planned or carried out. Such disabled persons are called Differently Abled Persons or Persons with Disabilities. They need separate care for better promotion for which efforts are been made regularly across the Nation but still, such persons seem to be incapable of achieving such benefits. This paper will thus attempt to justify the efficiency of the legal framework in making access to the Right to Education possible for the PWDs.

Keywords: Constitution; Equality; Opportunities; Persons with Disabilities; and Right to Education