Our Organization

Disability for long has been seen as merely a charity/welfare issue and not as a human rights issue in our country. NCPEDP felt that people with disabilities, disability groups and Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) should be encouraged to take the leadership role in this crusade. It was with this in mind that the ‘National Disability Network’, (NDN) the first of its kind in India was formed in 1999. With members from every State and Union Territory, the main goals of the Network have been to promote local advocacy groups and build leadership in the disability sector; to facilitate local advocacy groups to join hands with state-level groups to eventually form a national network that will act as a pressure group to influence meaningful policies at various levels – village, block, district, state and national.

The National Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was constituted by NCPEDP in 2008, as a think tank that could plan strategies and develop advocacy campaigns for the inclusion of disability into the national agenda. The Committee has designed and led NCPEDP’s key advocacy campaigns, playing a central role in bringing disability to the forefront of national consciousness. Its efforts have been instrumental in drafting milestones in policies such as the Bill on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the National Policy on Universal Electronics Accessibility. The Committee’s current focus is on improving accessibility, with advocacy efforts ongoing with the Ministries of Railways, Communications & Information Technology, Information & Broadcasting, Housing and Urban Affairs and NSSO.

While not limiting its work only to India, NCPEDP also has a global footprint by being a Member of  National Assembly (MNA) from India of the Disabled People’s International (DPI) – the world’s first successful cross-disability Disabled People’s Organization (DPO) registered in Canada in 1981 with a presence in more than 130 countries across seven regions. Through DPI, NCPEDP helps include participation from India in events like the Conference of State Parties organised in the United Nations every year and in projects like the Zero Project, mainstreaming of leprosy in the disability movement, to name a few.

A global consortium working towards the promotion and equalization of opportunities for all disabled people.  The organization aims to advocate for the ratification and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals in every Commonwealth country and develop inclusive policies.

Disabled Rights Group (DRG) is India’s first platform for a cross-disability advocacy group founded by Late Mr Javed Abidi in 1993. DRG, a political lobby group on the rights of persons with disabilities, has led several successful advocacy campaigns leading to the onset of India’s Disability Rights Movement. Some notable resultants of successful campaigns by DRG are promulgation of India’s Disability Act 1995, the inclusion of disability in the 2001 and 2011 Census, inclusion of people with disabilities and disability experts in relevant steering committees of 12th Five-Year Planning, speedy ratification of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by India and finally drafting of a new disability rights legislation in letter and spirit, post India’s ratification of the UNCRPD in 2007. Its sustained advocacy efforts also led to the formation of the Department of Disability Affairs and the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC).

Indian Forum for Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology is an informal network made up of persons with disabilities, organizations of persons with disabilities(OPD), family members with a person with a disability, Community Based Rehabilitation practitioners, other service providers, representatives of children, women, and older people with disabilities. The organizations’ objective is to improve the quality of rehabilitation services for all at different levels and increase the coverage. It advocates with the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Social Justice and Empowerment of Government of India to ensure that Community based Rehabilitation has a central emphasis as a strategy for delivery in the World Health Assembly resolution on attaining the highest standard of health for persons with disabilities.