Are we doing enough for the disabled?
Shishir Srivastava, 18 December 2007, Tuesday


Some of the well known figures in history have been disabled people. They did not allow disability to come in the way of their pursuit. What a person lacks in one department is more than made good by God in another department – so goes the saying!



DISABLED PEOPLE are an integral part of our society and their human rights will have to be taken care of. Only 1 percent of the 70 million disabled people are employed. Thus 69 million disabled people remain unemployed in India. More-over, only 6% of them are educated. We have largely failed in making them self-sufficient and empowering them financially by providing jobs; financial empowerment provides security and inspires confidence. Thus the handicapped people are abandoned. They lead a lonely and vulnerable life, almost devoid of any physical or emotional security.

But can such people be actually considered disabled? Can Stephen Hawking, the great scientist, the author of award winning novels be considered physically or mentally disabled? Hawking is disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The illness has progressed over the years and he is now almost completely paralysed but yet he continues to help fellow scientists with his valuable inputs.

One strange but yet unknown fact is that Ludwig van Beethoven was deaf. Musician, composer and arguably the creator of the best symphonies in the world, he had become deaf long before his death. Yet his musical genius outshone his disability - just goes to show what one can achieve through sheer grit and determination.

It’s believed that what you lack in one department is made good by God in an-other department. Such was the case with the protagonist of the award-winning film ‘Iqbal’, where Shreyas Talpade played the role of a deaf and mute cricketer; or the portrayal of Helen Killer by the brilliant Rani Mukherjee in ‘Black’. It proves that happiness can be found in life, the enveloping darkness notwithstanding.

The World Health Organization ranks India’s health system an abysmal 112, be-hind even Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, our neighbours next door. For the disabled people of India, life isn’t a gift as they look at it. In rural areas, the awareness level about their problems is really low and thus they are neglected. According to the National Sample Survey 2004, disability among people in rural areas is much higher than in urban areas - 1.85%, as against 1.5% in urban areas.

According to the Disability Act, 1995, a person with disability is a person suffering from not less than 40% of any disability as certified by a medical authority. The conditions included as disability are: blindness, low-vision, hearing impairment, mental retardation, leprosy and mental illness. Autism, cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities have also been listed as disabilities in the National Trust Act of 1999.

Even though disabled people constitute a significant 5 to 6 percent of the population of India, their needs for meaningful employment remain unmet, in spite of the implementation of the `Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995’, which reserves 3% of all categories of jobs in the government sector for disabled persons. But still 99 percent of them are unemployed. Industries have a crucial role to play as they can generate vast employment opportunities for the disabled.

There are more than 3,000 special schools in India today. Of them, 900 are schools for the hearing-impaired, 400 for children with visual impairment, 700 for locomotor disabilities and 1,000 for the intellectually-disabled. More than 50,000 children with disabilities are enrolled in ‘Integrated Education for Disabled Children’, a government-sponsored programme but as is the case with the Indian education system, here too the dropout rate is very high.

It was once said that the moral test of a society lies in how it treats the sick, the needy and the handicapped. The problems being faced by these people are immense but every adversity carries in itself the seeds of an equivalent benefit. There are several NGO’s working towards ensuring that the disabled people do not feel left out in our society. But, we as individuals can do a lot to help them. We can at least ensure that they lead a dignified life and do not feel left out. What they need is not sympathy but our support; not necessarily charity but a few moments they can cherish. And then we can say that we have passed the test of being a caring and conscious society.


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