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Unit 25: Policies and Provisions: Constitutional Provisions for Group of Children with special learning needs

25.3.3 Rehabilitation Council of India Act (RCI) -1992 Notes
The POA was strengthened by the enactment of the RCI Act, 1992. Experience showed that there was
no mechanism in the country to standardize and monitor the training of special educators and other
rehabilitation professionals in the country. Therefore, in 1992, Parliament of India enacted the RCI
Act, subsequently amended in 2000, to establish a statutory mechanism for monitoring and
standardizing courses for the training of 16 categories of professionals required in the field of special
education and rehabilitation of persons with disability.

Training of special educators and resource teachers that can offer support services to
children with special needs in regular schools is the responsibility of RCI.

25.3.4 Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights
and Full Participation) Act, 1995:
The most landmark legislation in the history of special education in India is the Persons with
Disabilities (Equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation) Act, 1995. This
comprehensive Act covers seven disabilities namely blindness, low vision, hearing impaired,
locomotor impaired, mental retardation, leprosy cured and mental illness. Chapter V (Section 26) of
the Act, which deals with education, mentions that the appropriate Governments and the local
authorities shall:
• Ensure that every child with a disability has access to free education in an appropriate
environment till he attains the age of eighteen years;
• Endeavour to promote the integration of students with disabilities in the normal schools.
• Promote setting up of special schools in governments and private sector for those in need of
special education, in such a manner that children with disabilities living in any part of the
country have success to such schools;
• Endeavour to equip the special schools for children with disabilities with vocational training
facilities.
25.3.5 National Trust Act -1999
Another landmark legislation is the National Trust Act. In 1999, the Indian Parliament passed an Act
entitled “National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation
and Multiple Disability. This Act seeks to protect and promote the rights of persons who, within the
disability sector, have been even more marginalized than others. Though the National Trust Act of
1999 does not directly deal with the education of children with special needs, one of its thrust areas
is to promote programmes, which foster inclusion and independence by creating barrier free
environment, developing functional skills of the disabled and promoting self-help groups.
These three landmark legislations have highlighted the enormous thrust that this area has received
from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Human Resource
Development.

What efforts have to be done for special children in India?

25.4 Major Schemes
The schemes dealing with CWSN can be categorized into educational and supplementary schemes.
The Educational scheme includes the Integrated Education of Disabled Children (IEDC) and the

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