North Dinajpur District Meeting
Census 2011 pegs the number of persons with disabilities in India at 26.9 million, which is 2.12% of the population. A World Bank study ‘People with Disabilities in India: From Commitments to Outcomes (2007)’ states that the number of persons with disabilities in India ranges between 55 to 90 million. This wide variation in numbers reinforces the fact that a large section of the community remains invisible, not counted, not certified and consequently outside the social net. Disability in India has a direct correlation with poverty. Disability leads to poverty and poverty causes disability. Caught in this nexus, persons with disabilities have little or no access to education, vocational training, and livelihood and employment opportunities. Unable to access welfare measures and entitlements, denied social security, treated as recipients of charity and doles, and because of widespread ignorance about their status as rights holders, they stand marginalized and most of their human rights stand violated. Lack of information about laws and their inability to access the justice system completes their marginalization. Within this paradigm, women with disabilities, persons with intellectual, developmental, multiple and psycho social disabilities, and indigent persons with disabilities in particular face multiple levels of marginalization and exclusion. Consumer Protection Act is one of the main laws that provide protection to consumers in India. The Act was introduced in the year 1986 and then amended in the year 2002 through the Consumer Protection Amendment Act, 2002. To save consumers from malpractices, protection has been afforded through the Act.Women have been subject to injustice in varied forms since time immemorial. There has and still is an urgent and continuous requirement of legislation and implementation for safeguarding the rights of women