Speaking For The Disabled!

                               

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around!"

- Leo F Buscaglia

After much pressure, one improperly framed question on disability was hurriedly included into the 2001 census - in the very last moment. It was a given that a considerable chunk of the enumerators did not even ask the question in the households they conducted the survey. According to the data released then, there were 2.19 crore disabled people in the nation - which accounted to 2.1% of the population. However the 11th Five Year Plan admitted that the figure could be anywhere between 5 to 6% of the total population. That certainly is worrisome statistic!

Undoubtedly, it is great news that the nation takes strides in development, but we need to ensure that - in the process - we do not end up creating more and more barriers to the disabled people. Because they comprise one of the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the society. It is no understatement if we mentioned that they are the invisible minority in the policy realm. Reason, budget analysis from 2008-12 reveals that we have spent only 0.09% of our GDP on disability.

We cannot really disregard the strong association between poverty and disability. Various studies confirm the high incidence of preventable diseases causing impairments. There are fundamental issues in relation to how differences are understood and responded to in Indian context, but one cannot overlook the contemporary hard realities of Indian poverty. So it imperatively falls on the State to up the ante in providing proper health care to the poor. It is only when we truly begin to develop deeper appreciation of the context and make efforts to understand individual and collective stories of the pain the disabled people go through everyday, we can open up the moral and political space for effective reforms - rather than putting in place fragmented solutions.

We need a new progressive paradigm to address the matter without any room for neglect or marginalization. We need to work out a framework that would - go beyond charity and acknowledge that disability is a cross-cutting human rights issue. We need a solid setup that screams out loudly for inclusivity which could only be achieved by careful re-structuring of culture, policy and practice - so individual differences are no more seen as problems to be fixed, but as opportunities to enrich harmony and embrace change. The era of being able to muster only a minuscule space in the minds of the policymakers concerning real pressing issues should come to an end - only then would the nation put its money where its mouth is! If we do not seize the opportunity to create an equal and just society, it would be a huge failure for a country that is on its way to become a global leader.