UPSC Mains 2022 GS Paper 2 Q7: model answer
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 remains only a legal document without intense sensitisation of government functionaries and citizens regarding disability. Comment.
What the question wants
Comment on the view that the RPwD Act, 2016 stays a paper law without deep sensitisation of officials and citizens.
How to structure it
Comment: agree with evidence, then measures.
- The Act
- Why sensitisation matters
- Evidence
- Measures
How to think it through
Laws for disability fail at the counter and in the classroom: a clerk who asks a blind person to sign, a school that turns away an autistic child. Sensitisation is the missing link.
Model answer
A wheelchair user arrives at a government office with a ramp too steep to use; the clerk asks a blind applicant to 'read and sign'. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 forbids such discrimination. Practice has not caught up.
The Act
21 disabilities, 4% job reservation, 5% in higher education, accessibility duties and penalties for discrimination.
Why sensitisation matters
- Officials decide whether rights become real.
- Attitudes, not only buildings, are barriers.
- Families often hide disabled children, especially girls.
Evidence
- In Rajive Raturi (2024) the Supreme Court found accessibility rules weak and ordered mandatory standards.
- Reserved posts remain unfilled in many departments.
- Many schools lack special educators.
- Over 2.6 crore disabled people were counted in Census 2011, yet accessibility audits of public buildings and websites keep finding gaps.
Measures
Mandatory training for officials, disability modules in teacher training, accessible public spaces audited by disabled users, and media campaigns.
The comment is largely fair. Without changed minds, the law is a ramp with no one at the top to open the door.
Draw: A ramp drawn up to a locked door; the lock labelled 'attitude'.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
RPwD Act 2016, social model of disability, Rajive Raturi (2024), Accessible India Campaign, UDID, special educators, sensitisation.
Where most answers lose marks
- Rejecting the Act as useless. Accept the law, then show the gap.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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