What Schools Owe Children with Disabilities Under Indian Law

A parent goes to the local school to admit her son, who has a hearing impairment. The principal is polite but firm. "We do not have the facilities. A special school would be better for him." The parent leaves, unsure whether she has any right to insist.

She does. Since 2016, Indian law has placed clear duties on schools to include children with disabilities. Many principals and teachers simply do not know what those duties are. This piece sets them out in plain terms.

Inclusive education in India: the legal starting point

Three laws work together here.

The Right to Education Act, 2009 guarantees free and compulsory education to every child aged 6 to 14, and counts children with disabilities among the groups schools must not turn away.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 goes further. Section 31 gives every child with benchmark disability the right to free education from 6 to 18, in a neighbourhood school or a special school of the family's choice. Sections 16 and 17 set out what schools and governments must do to make that education real.

The National Education Policy, 2020 commits to including children with disabilities in regular schooling from the foundational stage onwards, with support from special educators and resource centres.

The direction is clear. The default is the regular school. Choosing a special school is the family's decision to make.

What a school must do: Section 16

Section 16 applies to every educational institution funded or recognised by the government. In summary, it requires schools to:

1. Admit children with disabilities without discrimination, and give them the same chances in sports and recreation as other children.
2. Make buildings, campuses and facilities accessible.
3. Provide reasonable accommodation according to each child's needs.
4. Provide support, individually or in groups, in settings that help the child learn and mix with other children.
5. Teach children who are blind, deaf or both in the most suitable languages and modes of communication, such as Braille or sign language.
6. Identify specific learning disabilities early and take steps to address them.
7. Monitor each child's participation, progress and completion of education.
8. Provide transport to children with disabilities, and to their attendants where needed.

Each of these is binding. A school that says "we do not have the facilities" is describing its own failure to comply.

What the government must do: Section 17

Schools cannot do this alone, and the law recognises that. Section 17 asks the government to:

• Survey school-age children every five years to identify children with disabilities and their needs.
• Set up enough teacher training institutions, and train teachers, including teachers with disabilities, in sign language and Braille.
• Train professionals and staff to support inclusive education at all levels.
• Set up resource centres to support schools.
• Provide free books, learning materials and assistive devices to students with benchmark disabilities up to the age of 18.
• Give scholarships to students with benchmark disabilities.
• Change the curriculum and examination system to meet the needs of these students, for example extra time, a scribe or exemption from a second or third language.

The gap between the law and the classroom

In our conversations with teachers in Jaipur, the problem is rarely ill will. It is usually uncertainty. Teachers worry that they have not been trained. They do not know whom to call when a child needs a scribe or a hearing aid. Principals are unsure what the rules allow them to change in an examination.

These are real constraints. But most of them have answers inside the existing system. Under Samagra Shiksha, the national school education programme, there is a component for inclusive education that funds special educators, assistive devices and resource support at the block level. The task is to connect schools to these supports, and to make sure every teacher knows the basics.

A short checklist for school leaders

• Do we admit every child with a disability who applies, without asking for a certificate first?
• Do our toilets, ramps and classrooms work for a child who uses a wheelchair?
• Does every teacher know what reasonable accommodation means, with two or three examples?
• Do we know the special educator or resource person for our block, and how to reach them?
• Do we track which children with disabilities are attending, learning and moving to the next class?
• Do parents of children with disabilities know whom to speak to in our school?

If the answer to any of these is no, that is the place to start.

How Sutra can help

Sutra runs sessions on the RPwD Act for teachers and caregivers, explaining what the law requires in plain language and how schools can meet it with the resources they already have. If your school or network would like a session, write to us at info@sutraindia.org.