Benchmark disability
Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A benchmark disability is a certified disability of at least 40%. The term comes from the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016. Only a person with a benchmark disability qualifies for reservation and some other benefits under the Act. The 40% line works as a fixed test of who is eligible.
Example
Under the RPwD Act 2016, people with benchmark disabilities get 4% reservation in government jobs and 5% in higher education seats. Suppose a candidate's certificate shows a 45% locomotor disability. That candidate can apply under this quota. A candidate certified at 30% cannot.
Don't confuse with
- Disability in general: the RPwD Act recognises 21 kinds of disability, such as autism, thalassaemia and acid-attack survivors. All persons with disabilities get the Act's protection from discrimination. Only those at 40% or above count as having a "benchmark" disability for reservation.
- The 1995 Act's quota: the older law covered only 7 disabilities and gave 3% reservation. The 2016 Act raised this to 4% in jobs.
Related concepts
- UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016
- Accessible India Campaign
- Rajive Raturi case
- Mental Healthcare Act 2017
- HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act 2017
- NALSA case
- Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019
- National Council for Transgender Persons
- Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007