‘Social Injustice’ and the subsequent struggle that it brings forth for ‘Political Rights’ has been characterized as a social reality facilitating the current political and intellectual discourses that pervade toward an understanding of the weaker sections and addressing the voice of their shared oppression in society. In general characterization, the debates always center around the composite categories of women, LGBTQ members, and Dalits but in raising the hushed voices held at the helm of such protests, why have the members of the differently abled community been put out of the equation? Has their own pain and endured societal perception any less different than the other such ‘disadvantaged’ categories?
In retrospection of these questions, it reiterates the perception towards such a category being impeded by various issues partnering in debilitating their different physical functioning to a mental strangularity. In one such case, the caricatured understanding of ‘disability’ not only by the society alone but even by the State system, places these people in an inferior category. Even if amending the lines of such thought has been made through ‘reservation’ and funding schemes by the ‘Disabilities Bill’ in 2016, providing an inclusive chance of education and self-employment to them, it’s still been riddled with certain biases too. As per the people, ‘reservation’ as a scheme in itself repels them to recurringly consider the intellect of the differently abled within the folds of this scheme only rather than an achievement derived out of their own worthiness. It has thus led to the seizure of their political, economic, and social rights, depriving them of honor and dignity of life in society.
The inequity of such ingrained stereotypes is much more harshly reserved for the mentally challenged as it places them as consciously ‘handicapped’, who are loathed by society as an undesirable nuisance. Not only through the noticed aversion of their disgust but also through their followed glances, the people make them feel as forever being watched thus invading their personal spaces. In this manner, not only the physical actions but a sense of isolation being constantly surveyed by the people pose a begrudging effect on the freedom of their existence.
Another effect of this unfortunate degree is furthered by the silenced stance of the higher authority i.e., the government, in providing the necessary help to the differently abled. Even though reservation has been provided to them for economic stability, Has it really provided them economic protection? Has the government effectively helped them to overcome the growing demands for economic help towards the added costs of surgeries and proper medications which their own income cannot suffice? Although, programs such as the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS) started in 2009, provides a monthly pension of 300 rupees to its adherents and have been detrimental in providing some kind of economic help, however, a surgery that calls for thousands and lakhs of rupees, will it be satisfied by a mere sum? Even if a few medications could be bought through it, the outdated criteria for application and inadequate compensation further impede such a program. The situation becomes even more pathetic when the government is not able to regulate its own existing measures fully, in which cases of mismanagement resurface, being misused by the people leaving no other option for the differently abled to avail of their special rights.
However, taking precedence of such grave situations, certain Non-profit Organizations (NGOs) have also come together in formulating and bringing out measures for securing and caring for these perceived ‘disadvantaged’ people. Prime amongst the perpetrators of these measures is the Association of People with Disability, established in 1959, which has cumulatively brought the underprivileged people with different functional processes and has since empowered and equipped the people to pursue their dreams without any hindrance from their physical reality and the societal pressure over their attribution of a handicapped nuisance. Following suit with this operational NGO, various other institutions such as Sense International India, Family of Disabled, and Vishwas-Vision for Health Welfare and Special Needs amongst others, have also helped in furthering the endeavor of providing social inclusivity and mental dignity to the people of difference.
Even from a bigger picture, cinema has also drawn itself in manifesting the endured suffering and the societal behaviorism of the differently abled, which probes the societal attitude and reveals the inner anxiety of the differently abled characters. Inclusion in this category of cinematic films is Taare Zameen Par (2007), Margerita with a Straw (2014), The Theory of Everything (2014), Zero (2018), and Hichki (2018) to name a few. Bringing out these marginal voices into the mainstream begets a sound understanding which the directors have successfully employed in presenting the precise experiences of those who suffer from these curtailments and reiterates the stance of the society which further debilitates them albeit psychologically.
With India’s differently-abled population rising to a number of 2.68 Crore, it poses a huge problem in concern to their own dignity in the society. While newer social and economic refurbishment models are being devised by the government, however, indifference to such an issue in understanding the social perception of the society elicits the existence of such a problem in the first place. Thus the main purpose of removing such an issue begets an understanding of its genesis in society and create awareness programs to sensitize the younger generations towards a healthy perception, which bases itself not on sympathy but empathy to transform them from the calling of a ‘disadvantaged’ to an ‘equal’ and ‘dignified’ citizens in which they thrive themselves together.
