Thanks for sharing. Very well articulated! -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of avinash shahi Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2022 11:08 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [AI] Fwd: {Disability Studies India} Times of India column
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Abhishek Anicca <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 22 May 2022 09:41:02 +0530 Subject: {Disability Studies India} Times of India column To: [email protected] The Price disabled people pay for living in a normal world. Abhishek Anicca, Times of India, 15th May 2022 Not normal. Not allowed to board a plane. Not allowed to sit in a restaurant. Not allowed access to public places. Not allowed to apply for certain teaching positions. Not allowed to be treated like an adult. Not allowed to express sexual desires. Allowed to dream? There is no fixed criteria for what is 'normal'. Often, what shapes the idea of normal is what is considered a deviation from the norm, which, in turn, is a reflection of how a society has evolved, what it values. Last week, a child was not allowed to board a plane at the Ranchi Airport because according to an airline official he wasn't behaving normally. Could it be a mere coincidence that he was a wheelchair user? Are all the children and teenagers throwing tantrums at the airport barred from boarding a plane? I guess we all know the answer. We still ask the questions, though. What if their tantrums cause discomfort to the people in the plane? What if their wheelchair causes discomfort to the people sitting in a restaurant? What if their bodies or expressions cause discomfort to the other children in a classroom? Exclusion is a price disabled people pay for the imagined discomfort of able-bodied people. That's the truth, no matter how bitter it might seem. You will see them according to the position you occupy in the social ladder. If you are a government official, you will treat the disabled person as a beneficiary. If you know disabled people only from social media, you will treat them as inspirational role models. If you happen to be a parent of a disabled child or know someone close who has a disabled child, you will feel bad for the parents. After everything they have done, they certainly don’t deserve more barriers. And yes, we are using the word disabled and not differently abled or specially abled. What's special about getting your dignity taken away? There was some sunshine in the Ranchi incident, with fellow passengers becoming advocates and this advocacy spreading to social media. There is empathy left in the world, perhaps. But was there really any empathy for the disabled person or just the parents? That is an important question. The trauma, the shouting, the loss of dignity that this young disabled person must have gone through is unimaginable. Expressing yourself to your parents, only to be judged by the whole world because of it. That's a position no one wants to be in. But many of us lack the imagination to even understand that. If our imagination wasn't limited, we, as a society would have treated persons with disabilities as equal members of our society. Treated everyone with respect and respected their rights. Made our cities more accessible. Made sure that everyone received education, could afford healthcare and buy mobility aids. We don't. The disabled person only props up in our societal imagination as an inspiration or a tragedy. They are treated as equals only in speech and seldom in spirit. It only gets worse depending on caste, gender and class locations. It's not about one incident. Many disabled people have to show a 'fit to fly' certificate to board a plane, fight for their wheelchairs broken in transit, and even crawl through the narrow aisles of a plane. It has happened before and even after court cases and media struggles this continues to happen. Away from the eyes of the onlookers. Away from the limelight. Loss of dignity is part of the routine. Normalized through lack of sensitization and lack of stronger laws. The disabled person is out on their own. They can't spend half their life getting the law implemented. Writing to disability commissioners. Waiting for a reply. Campaigning. Petitioning. Doing social media activism for every incident that happens. And these incidents of discrimination happen far too often. How do you expect a person to keep going to the courts for getting a job or getting admission despite having the qualifications? Or run from pillar to post to get recognized as a person with a disability. When will they live their life? It's exhausting. We have made some progress in the last few decades. But new laws or new words won't be really effective unless the perception of what is normal changes. The diversity of different bodies, different ways of thinking, different ways of existing must become the core idea on which society is built, a truly democratic society. In a country where inclusive democracy is still a work in progress, a more inclusive culture remains a distant dream. But one is hopeful. Hope is the pivot on which many disabled lives are built. The hope that one day disabled people will get sufficient disability pension to live a comfortable life. The hope that healthcare systems will be affordable and accessible. The hope of a job or a seat in an educational institution. That they can get on trains, buses and planes without getting harassed. Most of them are stuck not because of lack of ambition but lack of societal imagination. They have always been ready to fly. But having wings is perhaps not considered 'normal' in our society, is it? Note: I wrote for Times of India last Sunday about why incidents like the discrimination that took place in Ranchi keep happening. The piece is still behind a paywall so I decided to copy the entire text in this mail. I am attaching a PDF of print copy in case you want to share with others. Warmy Abhishek Anicca www.abhishekanicca.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Disability Studies India" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/disability-studies-india/CA%2B3wkv28XPfmZTUbw5UzHQ%3D%3DtNkw4_hh8imfsMGbKiy1DLUWew%40mail.gmail.com. -- सादर/ Regards अविनाश शाही/ Avinash Shahi सहायक/ Assistant मानव संसाधन प्रबंध विभाग/ Human Resource Management Department भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक/ Reserve Bank of India लखनऊ क्षेत्रीय कार्यालय/Lucknow RO विस्तार/ Extension: 2232 -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/CADeSQ2iXOn9pQESmcEH0GZxqswV6GJYJn%2Bo%2BM-2x1fajyxLqKg%40mail.gmail.com. -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/007e01d86f3a%242c402fe0%2484c08fa0%24%40gmail.com.
