World Disability Day: Fight for a Better World
Muralidharan
On December 3, the world will observe the International Day for Persons with Disabilities. This year’s observance, as with earlier years since its inception in 1992, also risks being reduced to ceremonial gestures like honouring select disabled persons, camps for distributing aids, cultural programmes, etc. These programmes, while well-intentioned, fail to address the deeper systemic issues of disability and exclusion.
Given this background, the UN theme of this year’s World Disability Day -- ‘Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress’ -- has to be viewed as a radical call to dismantle oppressive social and economic structures that perpetuate disablement and hinders social progress.
While the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPD Act) are important milestones, both remain constrained by the capitalist framework. Though they do acknowledge the existence of oppression and discrimination, they do not challenge the very economic and social systems that perpetuate disability and inequality.
Disabled people face marginalisation in multiple forms, living at the intersection of disability and economic inequality. They are more likely to experience poverty than their non-disabled counterparts on account of the barriers of discrimination, lack of access to education, employment and exclusion from social and livelihood programmes.
Even the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) acknowledges that disabled people face multiple deprivations. As compared to the general population, they experience higher rates of poverty, low literacy and unemployment -- barriers that further exacerbates their social exclusion. It says: “The existing data available indicates that people with disability are subject to multiple deprivations. As compared to the general population, they suffer more from poverty, low literacy, unemployment, which put them further behind. The differences in access to basic services and degree of social marginalisation among persons with different types of disability are also striking, and they get further magnified, with differences on account of gender, caste, rural/urban background, etc.”
In a society that already marginalises its population on the basis of class, caste and religion, disabled individuals face multiple forms of exclusion. A Dalit disabled woman, for instance, encounters not only the physical and social barriers of disability but also the systemic oppression of caste and gender. Disability, therefore, cannot be seen in isolation from the broader struggles for social and economic justice.
The 2011 Census counted 26.8 million people with disabilities (2.21 per cent of the population). These figures stand disputed for a variety of reasons. The WHO estimates that roughly 16 per cent of the world’s population, or one in six people, experience significant disability. Both the Census figures as also the estimates of the National Family Health Surveys reveal that disability prevalence is higher in poorer regions and among marginalised communities. According to MOSPI, out of the 193 million households in India, a little less than 10 per cent households reported to have one or more disabled members.
Universal social protection programmes like pensions, free healthcare, housing, education, and mobility benefit not just disabled people but are essential for any society that values justice and equity. Disability inclusive policies should be a component of broader universal programmes that address the needs of the most marginalised, with the motto being ‘no one is left behind’.
The disability movement needs to identify itself with the other movements of the marginalised, the workers, the peasants and other struggling people. It must be rooted in solidarity with the struggles of the working class, social and gender justice. It is through building these solidarities that disabled people can demand a society that prioritises redistribution of wealth, access to resources and the redesigning of public infrastructure.
Victims of an exploitative system, disabled people should become agents of change in the fight for an inclusive society. They need to empower themselves by organising themselves, resort to collective action and build solidarity. These are prerequisites for challenging the structures that perpetuate their marginalisation.
December 3 should not just be a day for ceremonial honours or token gestures. It should instead serve as a call for action – a day of solidarity for a world where disability justice is non-negotiable. Symbolic observances will lead us nowhere. We need to work towards tangible changes that foster disability inclusive societies, where social progress is defined by justice, equity and liberation and not GDP.
