GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA
PRADESH
ABSTRACT
Women Development, Child Welfare and
Disabled Welfare Department - Persons with Disabilities - Guidelines for
evaluation of various disabilities and procedure for certification – Comprehensive
Orders – Issued.
WOMEN DEVELOPMENT, CHILD WELFARE &
DISABLED WELFARE (DW) DEPARTMENT
G.O.Ms.No.31 Dated.01-12-2009.
Read the following:
1. G.O.Rt.No.109, WD CW & L
(WH.Desk) Dept.Dt:15.06.1992.
2.
G.O.Ms.No.21, WD & CW (WH) Dept. Dated 23.03.1998.
3. G.O.Ms.No.41, WD CW & DW Dept.
Dated 9.06.1998
4. G.O.Ms.No.27, WD CW & DW
(DW)Dept. Dated 09.08.2000
5. Govt. Memo .No.10195/DW.A2/2002,WD,
CW & DW
Dept. dated 18.11.2002
6. G.O.Ms.No.56, WDCW & DW (DW)
Dept. dt.2.12.2002
7. G.O.Ms.No.22, WD CW and DW Dept.
Dated 7.7.2008.
8. The Persons with Disabilities Act,
1995
9. Guidelines for evaluation of various
disabilities issued by Government of India in 2001 and 2002.
10. G.O.Ms.No.115, WD CW & L
(WH.Desk) Dept., Dated: 30.07.1991.
***
O R D E R:-
In the G.Os. 1st to 7th
read above, orders were issued by the Government on constitution of Medical
Boards, Assessment of disabilities, Constitution of Appellate Medical Boards,
percentage of disability for facilities, concessions and benefits and action
for producing of false certificates in claim of reservation etc.
2. The Government of India had enacted the Persons with
Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Right and Full Participation)
Act, 1995 and the Act came into force in Andhra Pradesh on 7.2.1996. Keeping in view the enactment of the Persons
with Disabilities Act, 1995 with Rules notified by Government of Andhra Pradesh
and Government of India guidelines on evaluation of various disabilities and
procedure for certification issued in 2001 and 2002 and superseding the orders
issued from 1st to 7th read above, Government hereby
issues the following comprehensive orders:
I. Definition
of Disabilities:-
The following definitions mentioned in
the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and
Full Participation) Act, 1995 and the
National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental
Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 are adopted:
::
2 ::
Disability therefore includes:-
(i) blindness;
(ii) low vision;
(iii) leprosy
cured;
(iv) hearing
impairment;
(v) locomotor
disability;
(vi) mental
Retardation;
(vii) mental
Illness
a)
Blindness
refers to a condition where a person suffers from any of the following
conditions, namely:-
(i) total absence of sight; or
(ii) visual acuity not exceeding 6/60 or
20/200 (snellen) in the better eye with correcting lenses; or
(iii) limitation
of the field of vision subtending an angle of 20 degree or worse;
b)
Person
with Low vision means a person with impairment of visual functioning even after
treatment or standard refractive correction but who uses or is potentially
capable of using vision for the planning or execution of a task with
appropriate assistive device i.e., a person with impairment of vision of less
than 6/18 to 6/60 with best correction in the better eye or impairment of field
in any of the following categories:
(i)
Reduction of fields less than 50 degrees
(ii) Heminaopia
with macular involvement
(iii)
Attitudinal defect involving lower fields
c)
Leprosy
cured person means a person who has been cured of leprosy, but is suffering
from not less than 40% of disability as follows:-
(i)
loss
of sensation in hands or feet as well a loss of sensation and paresis in the
eye and eye lid but with no manifest deformity;
(ii)
manifest
deformity and paresis but having sufficient mobility in their hands and feet to
enable them to engage in normal economic activity;
iii) extreme physical deformity as well as
advanced age which prevents him
from undertaking any gainful occupation; and the expression “Leprosy cured”
shall be construed accordingly;
(iv) The
“Leprosy Cured” persons generally become “Locomotor Disabled” and the Medical
Certificate may, in such cases have to be
issued under the category of Locomotor Disability.
d)
Hearing
impairment means loss of sixty decibles or more in the better ear in the
conversational range of frequencies.
e)
Locomotor
disability means disability of the bones, joints or muscles leading to
substantial restrictions of the movement of the limbs which includes Dwarfs,
persons with Hunch back, leprosy cured persons, persons suffering from Muscular
Dystrophy or any form of Cerebral palsy.
f)
Cerebral
Palsy means a group of non progressive conditions of a person characterized by
abnormal motor control posture resulting from brain insult or injuries
occurring in the pre-natal, peri-natal or infant period of development.
::
3 ::
g)
Mental
retardation means a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of
a person which is specially characterized by sub-normality of intelligence.
Categorization of Mental Retardation
Category
|
I Q
|
Percentage of Disability
|
i)
Mild
|
50 – 69
|
50%
|
ii)
Moderate
|
35 – 49
|
75%
|
iii)
Severe
|
20 – 34
|
90%
|
iv)
Profound
|
Less than 20
|
100%
|
h)
Mental illness means any mental disorder other
than mental retardation.
Categories of Mental Illness
Category
|
Global Disability Score (Total
Disability Score + DOI Score)
|
Percentage of Disability
|
Moderate
|
7-13
|
40-70%
|
Severe
|
14-19
|
71-99%
|
Profound
|
20
|
100%
|
i)
Multiple
disabilities means a combination of two or more disabilities as defined in
Clause (i) of Section 2 of the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 Act.
j)
Autism
means a condition of uneven skill development primarily affecting the
communication and social abilities of a person, marked by repetitive and
ritualistic behaviors;
3. Person with disability means a person
suffering from not less than forty percent of any disability as certified by a
medical authority except Hearing Impairment. Hearing Impairment means loss of
sixty decibles or more in the better ear in the conversational range of
frequencies which corresponds to 85 dBs Hearing threshold on the audiogram in
the better ear i.e., 85 dB hearing level in audiogram – 25 dB upper limit of
normal hearing = 60 dB hearing loss as per provision under “Persons with Disabilities
Act, 1995”.
II. Evaluation and Issue of Disability
Certificate:
i) The guidelines for evaluation of various
disabilities and procedure for certification issued by the government of India in the 9th
read above shall be followed (Annexure-I).
ii) The Government hereby constitute the Medical
Boards consisting of three members, of whom atleast one shall be a specialist/s
in the particular field for assessing the disability / disabilities.
iii) An Audiologist with M.Sc. (Speech &
Hearing / Audiology Language and Speech Pathology {ASLP} or Equivalent)
qualification having registration with Rehabilitation Council of India should
be part of the Medical Board for issuing
hearing disability certificates.
iv) All the District Headquarters Hospitals
/Government Teaching Hospitals are
hereby notified as District Medical Boards and authorized to give certificates
for persons with disabilities.
v) Whenever required the Chairman of the Medical
Board may co-opt other Experts/Specialists in addition to members comprising in
the Medical Board.
:: 4 ::
vi) Further, the Superintendent is authorized to
nominate one of the Members in the Medical Board as his nominee to act as
Chairman of the Medical Board.
vii) Specified test as
indicated in Annexure-I should be conducted by the Medical Board and recorded
before certificate is issued.
viii) The certificate
would be valid for a period of five years or for such period as may be
specified for those whose disability is
temporary. For those who acquire
permanent disability, the validity can be shown as permanent. The specimen copy of the disability certificate is enclosed (Annexure-II)
ix) All the records pertaining to the assessment
shall be kept in the custody of the concerned Superintendent of the Hospitals.
x) On representation by the applicant, the
Medical Board may review the decision having regard to all the facts and
circumstances of the case and pass such order in the matter as it thinks fit within
20 days from the date of receipt of the application.
xi) All the persons with
disabilities shall be assessed afresh regarding percentage of disability. All
the existing certificates shall be replaced by re-assessing the persons with
disabilities by the concerned District Medical Board as per the new guidelines
to be issued separately by Rural Development Department. For this purpose, the District Collector in
consultation with the Superintendent, District Headquarters
Hospitals and Superintendent
of Teaching Hospitals are authorized to constitute required Medical Boards
within the district. The old
certificates shall become invalid after completion of the reassessment and
issue of certificates afresh.
xii) After completion of
the assessment of the degree of disability of all the persons with disabilities
in camp mode as per new guidelines, the Medical Boards shall meet atleast once
in a fort-night in order to assess and issue Medical Board Certificates to new
cases and left over persons with disabilities.
(xiii) In case of loss
of certificate, the concerned person with disabilities shall apply to the
concerned Superintendent, District Headquarters Hospitals/Teaching Hospitals
along with F.I.R. and non traceable certificate issued by the concerned police.
The Medical Board after due assessment shall
issue a Medical Board Certificate within 20 days from the date of receipt of
the application.
III. Appellate
Authority:-
i)
Government
hereby constitutes State Appellate Medical authorities in the State to resolve
the disputes regarding the degree of disability. The State Appellate Medical authority shall consist
of the following persons:-
a) Superintendent of the Institution
Hospital : Chairman
b) Head of the department of concerned disability
in Hospital/Institution
c) Expert
in the specified field of handicapped i.e., ophthalmologist in the case of
Visually Handicapped; ENT surgeon in the case of speech and Hearing
Handicapped; Orthopaedic surgeon in the case of Orthopaedically Handicapped;
Clinical Psychologist / Psychiatrist /Paediatrician; in the field of Mentally
Handicapped; Psychiatrist in case of Mental illness whenever required.(to be
nominated by the Chairman, Medical Board)
:: 5 ::
ii) Disability wise Appellate Medical
Boards are constituted as under:
a) Orthopaedically Handicapped/
Locomotor Disability/Leprosy cured/Dwarf/ Hunchback/ Mascular Dystrophy
|
Osmania General
Hospital, Hyderabad./ Gandhi Hospital,
Hyderabad
|
b) Blindness/ Low vision
|
Sarojini Devi
Eye Hospital,
Hyderabad.
|
c) Mental
Retardation
|
Institute of
Mental Health, Hyderabad
/ National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped
|
d) Mental
Illness
|
State
Institute of Mental Health, Hyderabad
|
e) Hearing
Impairment
|
Govt. ENT
Hospital, Koti, Hyderabad.
|
iii) The
Chairman, Appellate Medical authority may co-opt other experts whenever required.
iv) The Director General
of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be the final authority, should
there arise any confusion / doubt regarding the interpretation of the definition
/ classification / evaluation lists etc.
IV.Action
for fraudulently availing any benefit meant for Persons With Disabilities:-
(i)
It
has been represented to the Government that some normal persons are being
appointed to various posts based on bogus medical certificates resulting in
denial of the benefit to the genuinely disabled persons apart from injustice to
the meritorious open category candidates.
(ii)
All
the Heads of Departments, the District Collectors appointing authorities are
therefore requested to carefully verify the Medical certificates produced by
the individuals and verify the genuineness before allowing them to appear for
selection tests etc.
(iii)
All cases of Hearing Impaired shall
necessarily be referred to ENT
Hospital for confirmation
before issue of appointment orders.
(iv)
Regarding doubtful cases of other categories
they may be referred to the concerned State Appellate Medical Board for
confirmation or otherwise of disability status, i.e. Sarojini
Devi Eye
Hospital, Hyderabad
for Visually Handicapped and Gandhi Hospital/Osmania Hospital, Hyderabad for
Orthopaedically Handicapped.
(v)
Effective
follow up action including prosecution/removal from service following the due
procedure shall be taken in all cases of false claims based on fake/false certificate etc.
(vi)
Those who fraudulently avail or attempt to
avail any benefit meant for persons with disabilities, shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may
extend to twenty thousand rupees or with both as prescribed under Section 69 of
Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.
:: 6 ::
(vii) In
addition those who attempt to seek
employment on the basis of false medical board certificate i.e., certificates
obtained by misrepresentation /clandestine manner etc., which tantamount to
cheating shall also be debarred from Government employment for a period of
5 years.
(viii) Issue of Handicapped Certificates to
ineligible persons i.e. without following
prescribed procedure/proper evaluation shall entail stringent action against
all concerned.
V) RESERVATION OF POSTS FOR PERSONS
WITH DISABILITIES:
i) Trifurcation of 3% reservation in favour of
Physically Handicapped persons in so far as direct recruitment, subject to the
condition that the categorization of the physically handicapped persons for the purpose of reservation in consonance
with Sec.33 of Persons With
Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 in employment, shall be as under:
Category of disability %
of Reservation
1.
blindness
or low vision 1%
2.
hearing
impairment 1%
3.
locomotor
disability or cerebral palsy 1%.
ii)
If
relevant factors governing recruitment are equal, preference in employment
shall be given to the persons with disabilities having higher degree of
disability.
4. The General Administration (Services)
Department may take necessary action for amendment of A.P. State
and Subordinate Service Rules accordingly.
5. The Commissioner, Department for the
Welfare of Disabled and Senior Citizens is request to take necessary action
accordingly.
6. This G.O., annexure - I & II can be
accessed from the website of http://goir.ap.gov.in.
(BY ORDER AND IN THE NAME OF THE GOVERNOR OF
ANDHRA PRADESH)
M.CHAYA RATAN
PRL. SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT
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