The Department of Empowerment for Persons with Disabilities (“DEPwD”) is inviting suggestions from domain experts to make the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to persons with disabilities more seamless and effective, on the basis of an order by the Supreme Court of India.
A project is being undertaken, under Vidhi’s Lest We Forget series, on studying the impact of COVID-19 on persons with disabilities, with specific regard to accessibility of vaccinations. As part of this project, comments have been submitted to the DEPwD, to inform the vaccination policy for persons with disabilities, with the purpose of making it more accessible and user-friendly. The policy focuses on key areas of intervention, that is, the registration process and the vaccine centre, with emphasis on data collection and monitoring.
About the Authors
Kadambari Agarwal
Kadambari is a Research Fellow at Vidhi, and has done research for books on privacy and the Indian Constitution. She is also working with the Nyaaya initiative where she has been involved in projects relating to laws on domestic violence, sexual crimes, mental health, etc. She graduated from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in 2019, where she majored in psychology.
Rahul Bajaj
Rahul Bajaj is Senior Associate Fellow, Partnerships, in the Research Director’s Office. He manages Vidhi’s partnerships with academic institutions, think-tanks and other mutually beneficial partnerships. He also works on developing grassroot networks and collaborative partnerships in select areas of Vidhi’s work. He is responsible for coordinating research work in the Research Director’s Office, in particular on Vidhi’s research projects related to COVID-19.
Rahul studied law at the University of Nagpur, graduating as the gold medallist in the university. After working at Trilegal, Delhi’s disputes practice for a year, he pursued his postgraduate legal education at the University of Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. On returning to India, Rahul clerked for Supreme Court judge D. Y. Chandrachud before joining Vidhi.