"Disability is first and foremost a human rights issue"

P. Radhakrishnan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies,
writing in The Hindu ('Census and the Disabled' 11.7.00)

"Disabled persons have the inherent right to respect for their human dignity. Disabled persons, whatever the origin, nature and seriousness of their handicaps and disabilities, have the same fundamental rights as fellow-citizens of the same age, which implies first and foremost, the right to enjoy a decent life, as normal and full as possible"

UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, 1975

Manoj Sadasivan was ranked 222 in the civil services examination but, the Indian Express reported, it wasn't enough to persuade the authorities to give him an appointment. Manoj has impaired hearing, and the medical board at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi says Manoj is unfit for any of the 28 civil service disciplines because of his "perceptible deafness". Manoj claims the decision contravenes the Disability Act, 1995.

New Indian Express, 24.8.00

Three months later, the Express reported that a blind girl was refused permission by a bank to sit the probationary officers' exam. The Solicitor General said in a subsequent Supreme Court hearing that such cases were required to be viewed with compassion rather than strict adherence to the rule book. He said he would impress upon the government to consider favourably if the girl was willing to take a job a little less than the post of probationary officer, "where it would be difficult to accommodate a visually challenged person."

New Indian Express, 4.11.00

In two cases of child abuse reflecting negative attitudes to people with disabilities it was reported that a 12-year-old boy and a 19-year-old woman were found imprisoned by their own families in their homes in New Delhi. The boy suffered from mental disability, and a hole had been made in his room to pass food to him. The girl, physically disabled from birth, had spent her whole life in solitary confinement and now had a phobia of light and people.

Success and Ability - Newsletter of the Ability Foundation
April-June 2000

A polio-affected scientist working at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi took his employers and the Ministry for Human Resources Development to court, alleging discrimination on the basis of disability after his application for the post of Assistant Professor was rejected despite his 15 years' service with the institution.

Financial Express, 3.7.99

He is only one of the 70 million Indians affected by various forms of disability, the paper reported. His plea for justice coincided with the release of a study on disabled employees in the top 100 Indian companies by the National Centre for the Promotion of Employment for Disabled People [NCPEDP] Javed Abidi, himself a wheelchair user and executive director, NCPEDP, told the Express:

One always knew the situation was bad. But even we were surprised by the discrimination against the disabled. We should view it in the light of the mandatory 3% reservation in public sector companies since 1977. More than two decades later and four years since the passage of the Disability Act, the percentage of disabled employees is minuscule.

The fear of social ostracism multiplies the problems of leprosy sufferers. Many persons, rich and poor, wishing to keep their disabilities a secret because of the stigma attached, have been the victims of exploitation by doctors and medical workers. Not knowing that multi-drug therapy (MDT) is free, they have spent huge sums of money on less efficacious skin treatment and steroid injections.

The Times of India, 18.10.00

The 2001 census, crucially, gave full coverage to disability. The 1991 census had completely ignored disability because the '81 census had not elicited useful information on the subject. Much thinking and networking with NGOs went into the methodology to be used, and enumerators were trained to deal effectively with this sensitive subject.

The Hindu, 6.10.00

See also: Get counted during census, disabled urged.

The Times of India, 27.9.00

There is growing recognition, reflecting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, that disabled people must enjoy exactly the same rights and opportunities that are taken for granted by able members of society - the right to work, the right to enjoy a full social life, to realise their potential as individuals. But quite often, consideration remains at the level of compassion, and provisions made for disabled people are seen more as welfare and charity than as the restoration of rights that disability takes away.

It is estimated that there are 500 million disabled people in the world. Of these, 300 million are in the developing countries, and at least 100 million of those are believed to be in India.

The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child declares:

States shall ensure that each child enjoys full rights without discrimination or distinctions of any kind

Disabled children shall have the right to special treatment, education and care.

The stories of child abuse quoted earlier are a clear violation of the Convention, but also of India's own Disability Act, passed in 1995, which promises that children with disabilities shall have access to normal schools, that special schools will be set up for those in need, that these schools will be equipped with vocational training facilities and introduce non-formal education for school dropouts. It speaks of various types of affirmative action to enable those with disabilities, but the reality faced by disabled children is one of shocking neglect and ignorance.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons came in 1975. In the following year the World Programme of Action was adopted providing guidelines for the Decade of Disabled Persons 1983 - '93.

(More information at www.unescap.org/sps/sdinfodisablinks.htm )

According to a 1991 UN report (Despouy, 1991 - Human Rights and Disability, New York: United Nations Eonomic and Social Council) the disabled frequently live in deplorable conditions owing to the presence of physical and social barriers which prevent their integration and full participation in the community. As a result, millions of disabled people throughout the world are segregated and deprived of all their rights, and lead a wretched, marginal life.

A study by P. Coleridge, Disability, Liberation and Development (Oxfam Publications, 1993) shows a close relationship between poverty and disability due to malnutrition, mothers weakened by frequent childbirth, inadequate immunisation programmes and accidents in crowded homes, all of which contribute to an incidence of disability among poor people that is higher than among people living under easier circumstances.

• Of the 500 million disabled people in the world, 140 million are children and 160 million are women
  
• One in five - 100 million people - of the total number are disabled by malnutrition
  
• 80 per cent of all disabled persons live in Asia and the Pacific, but they receive just 2 per cent of the total resources allocated to disabled people
  
• In the Third World, the death rate of people with a spinal injury within two years of sustaining the injury is as high today as it was in the developed countries before World War I.

Source: 'Understanding Disability' by Michael Oliver

The numbers are growing every day.

DAR is the Disability and Rehabilitation wing of the World Health Organisation. Its website (see below) notes that

Increasing life expectancy has contributed to a growing population of older persons and as a result of this ageing population, there is an increasing number of people with disabilities. Better pre-natal care has increased the chances of children with disabilities to survive. The epidemic of non-communicable diseases has resulted in a continuing increase in the number of persons with chronic diseases and disabilities. Injuries are also on the rise due to increasing violence, conflicts and traffic accidents….

[More at www.who.int/hpr/rhb ]

Women and Disability

Women face two-fold discrimination-as women and as disabled persons. The UN Rapporteur points to the lack of adequate documentation about the exercise of human rights by disabled women, and says that denial of their rights and their violations therefore also remain undocumented.

Women face economic, social and cultural barriers in accessing health services, education, vocational training and employment.

The World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons (United Nations, 1982 (More at www.visionoffice.com/socdev/disun.htm) calls upon international human rights instruments to "fully take into account the situation of persons who are disabled" and to pay increased attention to obstacles "which inhibit the ability of disabled persons to exercise their human rights and freedoms recognised as universal to all mankind."

The Persons with Disabilities [Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation] Act, 1995, [full text at www.indianngos.com/disabilitygovernment.htm] provides for both preventive and promotional aspects of rehabilitation like education, employment, vocational training, reservation, research and manpower development, barrier-free environment and social security for persons with disabilities. It provides for a Central Co-ordination Committee (CCC) headed by the Minister for Social Welfare. It talks of non-discrimination in employment and affirmative action in the areas of housing, business, special recreation centres, research centres and factories for persons with disabilities.

Yet all the stories of discrimination cited earlier are of incidents that have taken place after the date of the passing of the Act, showing the gap between good intentions and the reality that the disabled face everyday.

The humaneness of society lies in altering our perception of the disabled, their perception of themselves, and remapping the boundaries of disabilities as Helen Keller altered our perception of the disabled and remapped the boundaries of sight and sense.

Prof. P. Radhakrishnan, The Hindu, 11.7.00