The 2023 report by Nifty 50 constituent companies reveals that only five out of the 50 companies have more than 1% of PwDs on their rolls, with four of them being public sector companies. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
A recent Hindi movie, Srikanth, starring Rajkummar Rao, narrates the story of the industrialist Srikanth Bolla and his journey of overcoming the challenge of visual impairment. In the film, the people of Srikanth’s father’s village ask the family not to invest in the son’s education or life in general. Many parents of children with some form of disability are similarly made to believe that their offspring are not worthy of investment. Persons with disabilities (PwDs) face social stigma, marginalisation in all sectors, and discrimination in education and employment; most importantly, they struggle for dignity. Educational institutions lack the necessary infrastructure and support mechanisms and workplaces lack robust diversity policies that would give proper representation to PwDs.
Status of education and jobs
The 2023 report by Nifty 50 constituent companies reveals that only five out of the 50 companies have more than 1% of PwDs on their rolls, with four of them being public sector companies. Similarly, data from the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People reveals that less than 1% of India’s educational institutions are disabled-friendly, less than 40% of school buildings have ramps, and approximately 17% have accessible restrooms. A report of the Sarthak Educational Trust titled ‘Accessibility and Inclusion in Higher Education in India’ states that reservation is provided under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, in government jobs, and incentives in non-government jobs, but there is a clear lack of implementation. The lack of infrastructure combined with the lack of inclusive policies hinders the full participation of PwDs in society. Thus, it is imperative that both public and private institutions invest in the uplift of PwDs.
The Indian education system needs an inclusive framework to promote PwDs. For instance, Harvard University in the U.S. has Local Disability Coordinators who are specialised in helping PwDs find accommodation in the city. Similarly, Stanford University in the U.S. has a robust institutional structure which includes providing support in housing and devices to PwDs. It also has a comprehensive resource centre that supports students with disabilities. Few Indian universities provide such impressive models. In 2023, Shiv Nadar University enumerated a disability support policy, which includes providing personalised support to students on a case-by-case basis, depending on the student’s health condition every semester. Based on the nature and severity of the disability, the Dean of Academics decides measures for academic accommodation and the Dean of Students for other aspects.
However, these measures are not institutionalised. Hence, they are not uniform, leaving a vast number of students from diverse backgrounds outside the walls of the university. Despite the University Grants Commission’s draft accessibility and inclusivity guidelines for higher education institutions to ensure that admission announcements and advertisements are circulated in accessible formats, the presence of PwDs is not very encouraging.
In terms of employment, despite the legislative mandate of providing reservation for PwDs, and of drafting an equal opportunity policy detailing the measures proposed by the establishment to ensure an inclusive work environment and prohibit discrimination at the workplace, employers have failed to do these. For the effective implementation of these rules, States should come forward and develop a compliance mechanism. For instance, a model from Brazil can be emulated, where companies with more than 100 employees must have PwDs comprise 2%-5% of the total workforce. In cases of non-compliance, the company may be subject to fines based on criteria such as its size and the number of times offences were repeated. Some countries have also developed incentive mechanisms. Japan, for instance, has developed a system of subsidiaries for employees who have some form of disability.
Striving for dignity
The British artist, David Hevey, once remarked that “the history of the portrayal of disabled people is the history of oppressive and negative representation. This has meant that disabled people have been presented as socially flawed able-bodied people, not as disabled people with their own identities”. The identity of PwDs is eroded in several ways. PwDs are considered by many as pitiful or helpless. Many believe that PwDs can only be in relationships with one another. Disability in addition to belonging to a “lower” caste or a particular gender creates a double/triple burden on people.
Sociologist Colin Barnes has argued that PwDs are “portrayed as objects of pity, violence, curiosity and ridicule, as burdens on society, sexually abnormal, and overall, as people incapable of community participation”. This portrayal forms the basis of the societal attitude towards PwDs. Recently, three former cricketers mocked PwDs in a video that went viral after India won the World Championship of Legends. Everyday struggles and the stigmatisation and mockery of PwDs reveals the inability of so-called “able-bodied people” to treat them equally with dignity.
Abhishek Anicca in his book, The Grammar of My Body, writes, “My friends say disabled people can be negative. I agree. We are so negative that sometimes the able-bodied mind never reaches us. That distance is too far… It is thus those who are creating the distance [who] should bridge the gap.”
Rajesh Ranjan is lawyer-researcher who writes on public law, rights, and public engagement of Constitution
