aaina, in collaboration with the State Disability Commission Office, Odisha organised a State Consultation on 10th and 11th of March at the Suryansh Hotel, Bhubaneswar. Guests and participants from diverse backgrounds from different districts of Odisha attended the two-day consultation. The Bill was discussed at length by the guests of honour - Prof. Asha Hans, Ms. Merry Barua, member of National Drafting Commitee and the State Commissioner of Disability.
The purpose of the event was to discuss and highlight the major limitations in the various sections of the Bill and come up with concrete suggestions or alternatives to make the Bill more acceptable by the majority. This was done successfully by all the six groups who were given different parts of the Bill to critique on. The groups included people with disability, relatives of PwDs, human rights advocates, authorities from organizations dealing with PwDs and lawyers. The group discussions raised concrete limitations and suggestions, covering the whole Bill. It was successfully consolidated by the management authorities and taken to the next step for review.
