Tough to be Disabled in India

Newspapers and TV channels have been reporting about the incident in which the 11-year-old autistic son of a south Indian actor was refused entry to an aircraft at Bangalore Airport because he ’looked different’ and in the opinion of an airport security man might be a threat to other passengers.

Not surprisingly the boy’s parents were outraged and, after a lot of fuss, the boy was allowed to travel. It must have been a humiliating experience for all concerned and, were it not for the fact that the boy’s parents were famous and able to stand up for their rights, the incident might not have ended so satisfactorily.

The press reports are unclear as to why, exactly, the boy was initially barred. The officer cited ’rules’ which he couldn’t quote. All sorts of inquiries are under way, both among the police and the office of the ’Commissioner for persons of Disability’.

In a country like India the numbers of the disabled are so large, their problems so complex, available resources so scarce and social attitudes so damaging, it is only legislation which can eventually bring about a substantial change in a uniform manner. Although legislation cannot alone radically change the fabric of a society in a short span of time, it can, nevertheless, increase accessibility of the disabled to education and employment, to public buildings and shopping centers, to means of transport and communication.

The impact of well-directed legislation in the long run would be profound and liberating. One out of every ten people in India suffers from one form of disability or the other that is they possess physical or mental impairment substantially limits one or more of major life activities.

India’s parliament passed the Persons with Disabilities Act in 1995. It was a landmark act which was designed to ensure disabled people are able to be an integral part of mainstream life in India. It is a combination of service-oriented and rights-based legislation. While this by itself is noteworthy, there seem to be some serious flaws in the Act that have to be set right to ensure equitable distribution of
benefits, at least to the mentally ill.

Though Mental Illness has been included as one of the seven disabilities, the Act as a whole shows very little understanding of the nature of the disability and current developments in the field. It appears that the recognition is more by default rather than intent.

The very definition of Mental Illness (MI) is more by elimination rather than explanation.

It is learnt that the Amendments to the Act take care of definitional issues by adopting an inclusive rather than an exclusive approach. But until the amendments are incorporated, the ambiguity of definition will persist and there is no currently no consensus on the scope of the amendments between the babus of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and disability activists and NGOs.

The Act defines a disabled person as one who is "suffering from 40% or more disability". However, as far as Mental Illness is concerned, this quantification is a mystification because such a tool is unavailable. So, if a parent of the affected wants to derive benefits under the Act and approach a psychiatrist for a legally approved disability certificate, there is none available. By being deprived of access to a certificate of disability, the discrimination to Mental Illness is inherent in the very definition of disability envisaged by the Act.

Meanwhile, many people have criticized policymakers for viewing disability as simply a charity and welfare issue. Javed Abidi, an activist, argues that it is and it should rightly be a development issue, a progress issue and an economic issue. He says that no country can afford to have six percent of its population live off charity and no country or society can ever progress or develop leaving six percent of its population behind. While the government and the activist groups sort this one out, without basic norms of civility and sensitivity at the ground level, the humiliation and ridicule for the disabled will continue as always.