Just before the commencement of the recent legislature session, the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Prasanna Kumar Pincha, was in Bangalore to review the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act in Karnataka.

Visually impaired from birth, Mr. Pincha is the first person with a disability to be appointed Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities. His meticulous style of review, knowledge on various dimensions of the issue and excellent communication skills not only caught the attention of those who were part of the review, but also inspired persons with disabilities as well as NGOs working for their welfare.

In an interview with The Hindu , Mr. Pincha shared his vision for the welfare of persons with disabilities.

Question: Please tell us about your background?

Answer: I am a Law Graduate and hold a Master's Degree in English. I was the Special Rapporteur (Persons with Disabilities) of the National Human Rights Commissions prior to taking charge of this post. Earlier, I was founder-principal of the Government Institute for the Blinds in Jorhat, Assam; Joint Director of Social Welfare, Government of Assam; Regional Senior Manager of ActionAid (an international NGO) of the Northeast region; and Senior Manager-cum-Theme Leader looking after ActionAid's work on the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Being a person with disability yourself, how you can make a difference to your job aimed at the welfare of disabled persons?

It is not just about my being a physically challenged person. It is keeping in with my domain expertise and passion. Disability and human rights are my passion. My knowledge of law helps me greatly in this [regard].

I believe I have the combination of subject expertise and also experiential expertise as I have lived with disability since my birth. I have the firsthand experience of issues as the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.

What are your priorities?

(a). Expeditious disposal of complaints and grievances of persons with disabilities regarding cases of rights violation; (b) building capacities of primary stakeholders of strategic importance such as mediapersons, bureaucrats, and legal and judicial fraternity; (c) to take up issues of systemic reforms with the government in the context of rights of disabled persons; (d) to focus more on those groups who are more marginalised among persons with disabilities like women, children, and persons with several intellectual and mental disabilities. In certain ways they are even more marginalised than the blind isn't it?

What about monitoring of programmes and funds?

One of the functions of the Chief Commissioner is to monitor utilisation of funds disbursed by the Central Government. I need to strengthen monitoring. This is one area where I have some concerns. It is a challenging job as funds are being given to about 1,000 NGOs across the country. It is not possible to monitor the disbursement of funds with this kind of small staff. So what we are doing is that we pick up one or two NGOs receiving large funds in different regions and monitor them. In this process, representatives from local offices are involved.

What is your message to people with disabilities?

My message to them is do not equate your disability with inability. Your disability is not your inability. With regard to government, their attitude should be in accordance with the dictum “cooperate where you can and resist where you must”.

We need to raise voice and organise, we need to engage in a constructive interactive dialogue with the government and sensitise them.

How do you rate Karnataka's performance with respect to welfare of the disabled?

It is one of the southern States which has done well. Tamil Nadu is slightly ahead of them. Karnataka should take up a drive to clear the backlog of vacancies in government posts reserved for persons with disabilities.