Ministry of Railways uses “intellectual disability” instead of “mental mental retardation” in chartered form

“We welcome the transition from ‘R-word’ to ‘intellectual disability’, but the railway is still undergoing fragmentary corrections,” said director and professor at the School of Medical Sciences and Master Teg Teg Bahadur Hospital. File | Image source: Hindu

The Ministry of Railways has decided to replace the term “mentally disabled” with “persons with intellectual disabilities” and seek discounts on train trips in a franchisor form sent to persons with disabilities.

“The Ministry of Railways has decided to replace ‘unable mentally disabled persons’ with mentally disabled persons who are “unable to travel without escorts,” the lawsuit on May 9 addressed the main chief business managers of all railway districts.

In addition to sounding offensive, terms such as “mentally mentally retarded” have negative implications, officials said.

“This move is long overdue. The new charter form will be included in the changes from June 1,” a railway official said.

However, the circular also closed the revised performance of the Charter Certificate Form, which uses terms such as “disability” and “Divyangjan” to address other disabilities, thus attracting attention among disability rights advocates and activists.

“The bone disorder/paralipation (person/patient) on the bone certificate form cannot travel without escort/personal disabilities, and the mentally disabled cannot travel without escort/companion/person with hearing and speech disorders (all in pain and speech disorders (the same person suffers together)…

While welcomed the changes and said that they should have been implemented earlier, activists pointed out some “offensive” words that remained in the revised charter form.

“The Rail Department’s response is always slow, but being late is better than not. The Supreme Court has issued a manual on inclusive language,” they said.

“We welcome the transition from ‘r-word’ to ‘intellectual disability’, but the railway is still undergoing piecemeal corrections,” said Satendra Singh, director and professor at the College of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Teg Bahadur Hospital, respectively.

“Even the revised charter forms continue to use euphemistic and controversial terms such as ‘person with disabilities’ and ‘divyangjan’,” Singh said.

Some activists say that the Chief Director’s disability had previously ordered prohibiting the expression of “disability”, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) (UNCRPD) ratified the Convention ratified by India and used the term “disabled”.

The notice said other provisions said: “Certificates issued in the old configuration prior to 01.06.2025 shall remain valid until the expiration of the validity period. There are no changes in the “blind” railway franchises.”

It added: “Regular railroads may print revised profiles and are available at all locations/sites to avoid inconvenience. All relevant instructions should be issued to all relevant parties.”