The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act) is an Act of the Parliament of India that came into force on April 19, 2017, after receiving the President's assent on December 27, 2016. The Act was created to fulfill India's obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which India ratified in 2007. It solved the problem of outdated and inadequate legislation by replacing the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
The RPwD Act works by adopting a rights-based approach, moving away from a welfare model, and expanding the definition of disability. It increased the number of recognized disabilities from 7 to 21, including new categories like acid attack victims, Thalassemia, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Key provisions include a mandatory reservation of not less than 4% of vacancies in government jobs and not less than 5% in higher educational institutions for persons with benchmark disabilities (those with at least 40% of a specified disability). Section 41 mandates that the appropriate government must take steps to ensure accessibility in modes of transport like railways and buses. Furthermore, Section 16 imposes a duty on government-funded educational institutions to provide inclusive education and reasonable accommodation. The Act connects to the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, which is strengthened under Section 74 to act as a regulatory and grievance redressal body. A recent development involves the Supreme Court using its power under Article 142 to expand the definition of "acid attack victims" to include survivors of forced acid ingestion, making this inclusion retrospectively operative from the Act's inception in 2016.