Chandigarh: Haryana government has banned the use of expression `handicapped` saying it violates and undermines the dignity of persons with disability.
An official spokesman said the expression `handicapped` was against the spirit of the Constitution, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, and, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which India was also a state party.
He said the use of such other expressions as `differently abled` would also be discouraged as such an expression harps more on the differentiality dimension whereas there was a need to promote equality dimension.
Wherever such description was both necessary and relevant, such persons would be described as persons with disability or as persons with blindness, persons with speech and hearing impairment or persons with locomotor disability.
He said national institutes like National Institute for the Visually Handicapped and National Institute for Hearing Handicapped should also be renamed appropriately.
PTI
