Many issues have been raised here.
Though there is always room for improvements and acomodation for the
disabled, when it comes to disability initiatives, yet
compartmentalizing the disabled under the heads of pro-Government and
anti-government is not taken in good taste.
Yes, I agree that market forces control many things in open markets. but
it is more of a political question and not hence is related to
disability issues.
In a society, the disabled should be treated like all other ordinary
people and their specific needs should be taken care of as per legal
provisions. the same has been and is done by different establishments
irrespective of party politics.
Hence, let us keep these political issues for some other forums and in
this list we should only raise non-political issues relating to
technology, disability issues etc.
On 21-03-2024 12:43 pm, avinash shahi wrote:
While we celebrate limited entry points given to a segment of the
disabled population, like accessibility in cinema halls, it will do us
good to remember that such accommodations are only available to the
non-controversial, mainstream, ‘good’ disabled citizens of this
democracy, whereas the same is indubitably denied, not only to those
who are less privileged in the socio-economic structures, but also to
those who are political dissenters.While we celebrate limited entry
points given to a segment of the disabled population, like
accessibility in cinema halls, it will do us good to remember that
such accommodations are only available to the non-controversial,
mainstream, ‘good’ disabled citizens of this democracy, whereas the
same is indubitably denied, not only to those who are less privileged
in the socio-economic structures, but also to those who are political
dissenters.
There have been some significant developments in recent times on
disability rights in India and the world. The Supreme Court of India
has initiated a consultation to prevent the usage of stereotypes
against persons with disabilities. The question of reasonable
accommodation and accessibility is more profoundly asked and
acknowledged in most spaces. Elon Musk’s venture Neuralink is seen and
hailed as a silver bullet for accessibility. /The Indian Express/, in
its editorial, ‘Everyone in
<https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/express-view-on-disability-access-everyone-in-movie-halls-9153801/>,’
(February 10) praised the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
guidelines to make cinema halls accessible for persons with hearing
and visual impairment.
These are significant developments for sure. However, the uncritical
celebration of these developments obscures certain realities that
affect us as citizens and as persons with disabilities. These
developments are primarily based on two impulses, namely, barrier
removal and social recognition of persons with disability through
several initiatives of inclusion in the free-market economy and
national mainstream.
However, these initiatives of inclusion by the market forces and
nation-states, what disability studies scholars David Mitchell and
Sharon Snyder call “inclusionism”, do not necessarily challenge the
able-bodied parameters. They do not question the exclusions and
debilitations produced by neo-liberalism either. Instead, the
expectation is that through these market and state initiatives,
disabled people will achieve “normalcy” as far as possible. Within
this framework, persons with disabilities are given a small space to
augment their value as “normalised” humans in the capitalist paradigm
as consumers of assistive technologies such as Neuralink. By getting
access to cinema halls and similar structures, persons with
disabilities can feel “reasonably” accommodated. As consumers, they
can mimic and achieve normalcy through market commodities,
technologies, and accessible market spaces.
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Such discourse on accommodation and accessibility is supported,
celebrated, and valorised by NGOs and disability movements with
apolitical middle-class articulation of disability rights, in which
the voices of several persons with disabilities, who do not have the
privilege to be “visible” in this market economy, are excluded.
Dear Editor, I Disagree
Therefore, one must appraise which group can shape and articulate
disability empowerment discourse and how that group shapes that
discourse. The inclusion of a few disabled — the “able-disabled” as
Mitchell and Snyder like to call them — as consumers of goods,
services, and technology suffers from democratic and demographic
deficits. Moreover, such inclusions often get misappropriated by the
nationalist narrative of inclusion and accommodation.
Festive offer
<https://indianexpress.com/subscribe/offer-77891/?utm_source=IESITE&utm_medium=BANNER&utm_campaign=HOMEPAGE>
But while we celebrate limited entry points given to a segment of the
disabled population, like accessibility in cinema halls, it will do us
good to remember that such accommodations are only available to the
non-controversial, mainstream, “good” disabled citizens of this
democracy, whereas the same is indubitably denied, not only to those
who are less privileged in the socio-economic structures, but also to
those who are political dissenters or critical voices of our society.
It is important to remember that the state instrumentalities which are
now advocating and celebrating politically benign empowerments like
accessibility to entertainment centres of the free economy, were, not
very long ago, callously deliberating whether a person with
Parkinson’s disease (a scheduled disability under RPwD Act, 2016)
should be provided with a straw or not as a political prisoner, even
as Father Stan Swamy died without any relief from the state. We also
need to remember that G N Saibaba, a 90 per cent wheelchair-bound
former professor at the University of Delhi
<https://indianexpress.com/section/cities/delhi/>, languished in jail
for 3,588 days without bail under UAPA charges. He was acquitted
earlier this month by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, as
the state could not provide evidence to support draconian charges
against him.
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My disagreement is not with the celebration of accessibility in
different forms but with the limited imagination of accommodation and
benign inclusion that seems to overshadow the disability discourse.
Such celebration fails to speak for the vast majority of persons with
disability whose stories disturb the narrative of the welfare state,
benevolent courts, and feel-good stories on accommodation and
accessibility.
/The writer teaches Law at The West Bengal National University for
Juridical Sciences, Kolkata
<https://indianexpress.com/section/cities/kolkata>./
--
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
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