India became the seventh (or could just be sixth) country to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on October 1, 2007! Check out the map with the current signatories and ratifications here...
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/documents/map031007.jpg
I was very pleasantly stunned to be honest...I did not expect India to ratify so soon. Proved me wrong there...
The real work begins now though. India has taken on a huge challenge as our current legislative and social infrastructure is seriously lagging behind the standards put into the Convention. The Indian delegation had raised several concerns during the deliberations of the Articles of the Convention, not the least of which was that the country just does not have the resources to provide and ensure the the kinds of measures the Convention demands.
I am of course extremely pleased that we did ratify the Convention. It gives some teeth to advocates and their demands for change. We will need to radically change a lot of our traditional thinking on treating and governing citizens with disabilities. Our policies will need a real make-over. But I'm not complaining.
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