About NCPEDP

National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) was registered as a Trust in 1996. It was set up with a mandate to:

• Encourage the employment of disabled people.
• Increase public awareness on disability issues.
• Empower disabled people through appropriate legislation.
• Equip disabled people with educational opportunities.
• Ensure easy and convenient access to all public places.

NCPEDP believes in the need to move away from traditionally held views of charity and welfare to those of productivity and empowerment of disabled people. NCPEDP has chosen the path of advocacy to achieve its objectives because it is the most impactful and scaleable approach to bring about a sustainable change.

NCPEDP has established itself as a lead cross-disability organisation in the Indian disability sector. It has formed a vibrant network of Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs), Self Help Groups and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) called the National Disability Network (NDN) which has a wide reach up to the district level. NCPEDP has also set up Disability News & Information Service (DNIS), a fortnightly news service, to provide authentic and timely information on disability to facilitate a positive action.

Some of other key achievements as a result of NCPEDP’s campaign are:

• University Grants Commission (UGC) announcing a scheme for higher education of people with disabilities (1998)
• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) including disability on their social agenda (1998)
• Council of Architecture including disability in the curriculum of all architectural colleges in India (2000)
• Inclusion of disability as a category in Population Census 2001 (2000)
• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) announcing a policy to make all heritage buildings accessible (2001)
• Finance Ministry announcing the reduction in Customs Duty on disability goods in the Union Budget 2003
• Policy for making voting process accessible to disabled people in the General Election of 2004, leading to not only construction of ramps in polling booths but also launching the EVM with Braille Numeric for visually impaired voters (2004)
• Civil Services opening Indian Administrative Services, including Foreign Service for people with disabilities (2004)
• Ministry of Human Resource Development announcing a Comprehensive Plan of Action for Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities (2005)
• Drafting the Section on ‘Disability’ under the Chapter,’ Other Vulnerable Groups’ in the X1 Five Year Plan (2007)
• Campaigning effectively for the Ratification of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities (UNCRPD)

NCPEDP has staff, consultants, partners, volunteers who are not only experienced but also committed to the organisation and the cause. The team is led by a very dynamic person, Mr. Javed Abidi, who is a very well known disability activist in the country. He was instrumental in getting The Disability Act, 1995 passed and has pioneered the cross disability rights movement in India.

For further information, visit NCPEDP’s website – www.ncpedp.org – and disability news on Disability News & Information Service (DNIS) site – www.dnis.org