TL;DR: India’s new Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 has stirred controversy among disability advocates. 🧑🦽 The law demands guardians’ consent for data sharing of persons with disabilities, undermining their autonomy 🛑 and violating legal capacity rights granted under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act. Activists argue this is infantilizing and exclusionary. 💔
💡 Are India's New Data Rules Helping or Hurting?The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 aimed to protect sensitive information. But Section 9(1) has sparked backlash 😤 by requiring that guardians give consent for sharing the personal data of persons with disabilities. Disability groups are calling this move “regressive,” as it contradicts legal rights to autonomy and decision-making.
🔎 The Problem with Guardianship Rules
🤦 Section 9(1) treats persons with disabilities like children, lumping their data under the same category as kids'.
💬 Laws like the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 emphasize supported decision-making, where individuals are aided, not overruled. But the current law enforces substituted decision-making, diminishing their voice.
📊 Studies reveal that legal guardians often manage all affairs of persons with disabilities—banking, property, and even personal decisions—leaving no room for their choices.
🚨 A Step Backwards
👎 Disability rights activists warn that combining disability data with children’s data ignores the principle of legal capacity. Persons with disabilities are competent to make decisions but are often excluded from financial systems, denied property ownership, or barred from insurance coverage.
🌏 Lessons from Abroad
In contrast, Australia ensures autonomy by offering support instead of overriding decisions. Why can’t India adopt a similar approach? 😟
✅ What Needs to Change?
Activists demand:1️⃣ Accessible consent forms and privacy notices 📝.2️⃣ Support systems to help those with limited decision-making capacity 🤝.3️⃣ Implementation of international disability rights conventions 🌐.
This is not just a law—this is about respect and dignity. 💪
