EMPOWERMENT OF DISABLED CADETS IN LIGHT OF LAW AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
By Harshika Kapoor
The Government of India has notified the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (“New Act”) in order to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and for matters related to or incidental thereto. Previously, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights, and Full Participation) Act of 1995 addressed the issue of disability (“Old Act”). Unlike, the law has become more gender sensitive as separate provisions have been made for women suffering from disability; such as responsibility has been conferred upon the government to ensure that women and children enjoy equal rights, to formulate schemes to support women with disability for livelihood and for upbringing their children, to take accurate measures to promote sexual and reproductive healthcare especially for women with disability as we are mentioning about the gender sensitive we need to look into other perspectives even like disabled cadets, etc. On the other hand, here as a researcher, I will be mentioning about the empowerment of disabled cadets in regard to law and social transformation. There is one notable feature in it, and that is the disabled cadets, as we have already talked regarding disabled persons included in the Act. Disabled Cadets are young officer trainees in the Indian armed services who are being trained to become officers in the Indian armed forces. Cadets or Gentleman Cadets are the trainees for young officers. These cadets, who are usually teenagers aged 17 to 19, are relentlessly prepared to tackle any difficult circumstance as a soldier, such as crossing enemy lines, firing weapons, blasting grenades, and so on. Aside from these, adolescents receive extensive physical training that includes tough physical workouts, PT, and participation in a variety of sports. Gentlemen cadets are also prepared to be true leaders who will lead their warriors from the front lines of battle in the future.
While, here, our focus will be who disabled cadets are and what all transformation has taken so far to benefit the disabled cadets.
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