Support Indy
Media

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

Read CC In Your
Own Language

CC Malayalam

Mumbai Terror

Iraq

Peak Oil

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Globalisation

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

WSF

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

Submission Policy

About CC

Disclaimer

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name: E-mail:

 

Printer Friendly Version

Beyond Ableism

By Subhash Gatade

15 December, 2008
Countercurrents.org

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram gave a piece of his mind in a national conference organised by FICCI recently. Addressing the meet on 'Engaging Industry in Employment of Persons With Disabilities' he appealed to the captains of industry to 'show their humanitarian side' and 'employ the physically challenged people'.

Question naturally arises as what prompted him to issue such an unusual appeal in the gathering. Perhaps the immediate provocation was the news that even six months after the commencement of the current financial year the budget allocations and incentives for the differently abled persons remained completely unutilised. To be very frank, not a single application to avail this scheme had reached the Finance Minister's office.

What was so special about this scheme. ?

The government had earmarked Rs.1,800 crores in the budget which included social security cover as well for those employers who were ready to give employment to the specially abled people. It had envisaged that it would be able to give regular employment to 1,00,000 physically challenged people by encouraging industrialists through incentives.

Surprisingly instead of raising a question about the lacunae in the recruitment policies of the corporate sector , the finance minister himself appeared to be defensive on this issue and was ready to call it a 'failure of the government'. According to him “A large number of people have told me, including P M Sinha who heads Bata, that he has no idea of such a scheme until a week ago. "

Even if one were to give benefit of doubt to individual enterpreneurs or industrialists over their 'ignorance' of this part of budget pronouncements, it appears rather incredible that the corporate sector as a whole which has a battery of highly paid financial advisers -which analyse the budget in great detail - failed to note this important part which involved enough subsidies and grants.

Or was it a case of selective amnesia ?

A close look at the employment situation of the specially abled persons in the corporate sector can throw light on the subject. According to a World Bank report on ‘People with Disabilities : From Committments to Outcomes’ which was released sometime back, mere 0.3 per cent of large private firms workforce comes from disabled category. And for all their talk of equal opportunities the MNCs seem to be the worst where mere 0.05 percent workforce is from this category.

Contrary to all pronouncements for their betterment, in a decade when we had a ‘landmark legislation’ to promote their rights, one witnessed five per cent drop in their employment rates. The fall in the employment rate of working age disabled people from 42.7 per cent in 1991 to 37.6 percent in 2002, almost universal across the country.

But can the corporate sector be singled out for its policies of exclusion vis-a-vis the specially abled persons. In fact the callousness of the states also is visible at various levels. The year 2006 saw approval of National Policy on Persons with Disabilities by the Government of India. But till date only two states - Chhatisgarh and Karnataka - have draft disability policies ready.

As per the report, people with disabilities are among the most excluded in the country. Multiple deprivations faced by the disabled range from educational opportunities to consumption levels and assets. It is found that children with disabilities are around 4 to 5 times less likely to be in school than SC and ST children.

While the said report was being discussed in forums committed for the specially enabled, one came across an order by the Delhi high courts wherein it directed the Centre and Delhi government to advise all its agencies to compulsorily make all public spaces - including railway station, airports and heritage sites, disabled friendly. The court’s intervention came only after disability rights activists approached them under the Persons with disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

Of course, would it be enough to put all the blame on the state and its various organs or for that matter the corporate sector for the plight of the disabled. A moot point in this connection seems to be the silence of the articulate sections of our society towards them. Rather one needs to understand that the social stigma and attitudes play an important role in limiting the opportunities of the disabled in different walks of life.

It was late 70 s when Frank Bowe, a disability rights activist from US had written a monograph ‘Handicapping America’ (1978) in which he tried to explain how the key issue in any debate around disability is the societal response to it. For Bowe, the main point was not the status of physical or mental impairment of a particular person, but the way society develops strategies to cope with it.

In fact it is just a marker of the subtle manner in which the mainstream society practices what can be called ableism. Advocates of the term argue that ableism is like racism and sexism, a reaction of mainstream society on the derogatory physical or intellectual capacities in combination with behaviour of the disabled person. An ableist society treats non-disabled people as the standard of ‘normal living’. In an inclusive society, on the other hand, all products and services are fully accessible and usable for as much people as possible. An ableist society tends to isolation, whereas an inclusive society tends to integration or inclusion.

The enormity of the challenge, which faces humanity vis-à-vis the question of disability, is concerned can be gauged from the fact that around ten per cent of world population suffers from disability of some sorts. The World Health Organisation, for example, estimates that there are as many as 600 million persons with disabilities. The United Nations estimate is 650 million. There is also widespread agreement among experts in the field that disability is more common in developing than in developed nations.

Interestingly till early 80s, the dominant trend in the disability discourse revolved around adoption of ‘social welfare measures’ and the world was bit far away from taking it up as a ‘human rights issue’. It is a different matter that things really started moving since then and the resolve of the international community to fight the scourge of disability became clear when United Nations decided to celebrate 1981 as the Year of the Disabled. The UN Decade of Disabled Persons (1983-1993) featured a World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons. In between, much was accomplished. For example, in 1984, UNESCO accepted sign language for use in education of deaf children and youth.

A positive aspect of the otherwise grim scenario is that the year 2006 saw adoption of ‘International Convention of the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities’And the key ‘thinking behind the Convention was that welfare and charity should be replaced by new rights and freedoms.’ It also recognized that a change of attitude is vital if disabled people are to achieve equal status - countries that ratify it will be obliged to combat negative stereotypes and prejudices and to promote an awareness of people’s abilities and contribution to society.’ For countries like India, which has been a signatory to the convention, the important provision was the article that obliges governments to expand the reach of inclusive education- the education of disabled children together with the non-disabled ones. The basic idea was to do away with ‘special schools’ which are specifically run for these differently abled persons.

There are many prisms through which one can look at societies to understand the level of human freedom available. It is for all of us to decide when we would cross the ableism mark.

[email protected]

Leave A Comment
&
Share Your Insights

Comment Policy


 

Share This Article



Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands of people more. You just share it on your favourite social networking site. You can also email the article from here.



Disclaimer

 

Feed Burner
URL

Support Indy
Media

 

Search Our Archive

 



Our Site

Web