In times when one has to push others to get ahead, we leave the
wounded behind because they will only slow us down. Conditions that
disable others are also those that we carry in our hearts — our
attitudes and preconceived notions. But, isn’t it time we ensured that
no one’s left behind, wonders Shefali Tripathi Mehta.
A friend who adopted a baby was told by every well-wisher to ‘exchange’
the child when she was discovered to have a hearing disability. A
medical team conducting a survey of children in a village stopped at a
home with several kids. “How many children?” they asked. “One,” the man
of the house replied. “And the rest?” “They are girls.”
Girls —
unaccounted for. People with disability — unaccounted for. And like
them, other disadvantaged sections of our society that we seem to have
turned away from — the aged, the poor, the victims of our tardy justice
system or of horrific violence, and their families.
In times when
one has to shout to be heard, push others to get ahead, we leave the
wounded behind because they will only slow us down. There are barriers
in their participation and contribution to the family, community and
society. Because they are also more dependent on others, they are
susceptible to neglect, abuse and violation of their rights. Rights and
laws can only provide safeguards, but the reality of being of little or
no consequence is heartbreaking. These people, often referred to as
‘second-class citizens’, are considered less valuable for the society.
This reflects in our thinking and our attitude towards them.
Imagine
walking a few steps on a pavement blindfolded? This is how difficult
life is for people with disabilities, and the graying population, in our
country. But we cannot take on their battles. These people are too far
gone in the periphery of our reality for us to bother. We are a country
where the right of way belongs to big cars and not pedestrians; where
ambulances blare their sirens to unhearing, uncaring motorists; where
women of less means die giving birth to children outside hospitals that
close their doors on them; where we shamelessly park in disabled parking
bays, and sit while the aged stand for their turns in doctors’ waiting
rooms.
Conditions that disable others are also those that we
carry in our hearts — our attitudes, preconceived notions about physical
disability and mental illnesses, our total neglect of old age and
poverty. We disable them with archaic laws, rigid education system,
partisan employment policies, disparate judicial system, apathetic
infrastructure and town planning.
We grew up immune to the
tragedies of the ‘lesser-ones’ — made fun of those with mental
illnesses; in school, children with polio sat in class during games; the
blind came home to weave chairs; the house-help ate leftovers; our
films and television introduced people with mental illnesses for comedy,
and those with physical disability made extraordinary sacrifices —
nothing came close to reality. Nothing in later life taught us better,
and we continue to fail in sensitising our children.
Family mattersEight-year-old
Anita is visually-impaired and from a family with limited means. Her
parents demonstrated extraordinary support and positive attitude by
travelling daily to the nearest town for her rehabilitation. Anita was
only five and travelled four hours daily to learn Braille, Abacus and
Taylor Frame (used by people with visual impairment to do Math). She is
now studying in class three in an inclusive school. Her mother has
learnt Braille so that she can support and help her daughter.
The
family system that is our boon is our bane too. Often, the first barrier
a person with disability encounters is his own family which lives in
denial of the disability. They cannot accept that their child has a
special need and early intervention may enable the child to live a
less-dependent, fuller life.
Many families discriminate among
their children too — spending more on the normal child’s education and
not finding the same ‘investment’ worthwhile for the child with
disability. These are attitudes born out of age-old traditions and
culture that we have not been able to shake off with awareness in a much
advanced world. The families of those with mental illnesses and
physical disabilities on the one hand struggle to cope with the person’s
special needs — the stress of providing care, treatment, emotional
support; disruption of daily schedules, family routines, work and
leisure; and on the other, also face social ostracism. It is not they,
but we, who are unfortunate for our blinkered thinking and regressive
attitudes.
A study by Help Age India, conducted across 20 cities,
has found that almost one in three of our elderly face abuse, most
often by their own children. Urban, middle-class, working couples who
have parents keeping their house and kids, begin to resent their
presence once they have outlived their usefulness and are themselves in
need of care.
Crippling cultureDisabled
children are buried up to their necks during solar eclipses; wailing
infants are tossed from temple tops to be caught in blankets to bring
health and luck; the belief in karma leads to the superstition that
disability is a result of the sins in past life. Societal attitudes
towards disability, old age or differences of any kind range from
neglect and overprotection to sympathy.
A chartered bus with
everyone seated had one last passenger — an elderly man. Passengers
squirmed in their seats, but offering seat to others in chartered buses
is not a norm. Then, a woman got up and offered her seat to him. It took
her some courage to get over the awkwardness, but she said she thought
of her own father and hoped in return someone would do the same for
him.
Even the educated and good-hearted are awkward and
uncomfortable around someone with a disability because we have not been
sensitised to understand their needs and appreciate their abilities. We
have a culture of helping that only makes the less-abled dependent. “You
can’t do this”, “You won’t be able to go there” are barriers we create
for them. People often address the attendant of a person with disability
instead of talking to them directly; they talk louder to a blind
person; and often begin to lead someone or push a wheelchair without
first asking. Well-meaning though we may be, why does regard for human
dignity seem less significant in such situations?
It is unfortunate
that the barriers in inclusive education are not just the schools that
refuse admission to children with disability citing lack of facilities
and trained staff, but also parents of ‘normal’ kids. We may cry rivers
watching a Tare Zameen Par, but the same empathy does not move us in
real life.
Superstition sanctions families to abandon their
elderly women and widows at the Kumbh melas. The belief that those who
die in holy cities go straight to heaven cloaks their dark intent, and
is responsible for the abandonment of an estimated 10,000 women on the
streets of Benares. Many women admitted to hospitals for treatment of
TB, leprosy, depression or other mental illnesses are never accepted
back into their families. Many well-off families brazenly deny their
women treatment for cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Broken bridgesA
few years ago, pedestrian crossings at busy junctions in Mumbai were
installed with audible signals designed for the visually impaired, but
had to be silenced because residents complained of the noise.
Independent, dignified life for a person with disability in India is
still a dream. Our cities are flooded by rains, our public transport has
to be availed of by running, climbing and finding a foothold, commuters
hang on foot boards of buses and local trains, our disappearing
pavements are broken, blocked with stumps of trees, debris and filth,
and public disabled toilets are nonexistent.
Hotels, restaurants,
parks, historical sites, banks, post offices, railway stations and
libraries are not barrier-free spaces for people with disabilities or
the aged. How easy is it for a blind person to eat at a restaurant? For a
wheelchair user to go to the bank? For an aged person to get a lower
berth on the train?
A survey last year revealed that in the
country’s capital, 37 per cent government schools did not have clean
toilets, leaving students with no option but to urinate in the open.
Parents are reluctant to send their children, particularly girls, to
schools where basic toilet facilities are not available. Lack of basic
facilities in schools is a violation of the right to free and compulsory
education guaranteed in the Indian Constitution.
Laws that violate
The
Right to Education and the midday meal are legal entitlements in our
country where reportedly lower caste children are still made to sit away
from the rest, scolded, beaten, made to do menial chores by teachers,
and not allowed to drink water from the same tap as the rest. The rigid
systems of admissions, curriculum, and evaluation; and the lack of
awareness among the school authorities, teachers, students and parents
of non-disabled or privileged children make integration very difficult.
The
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the
Right to Education (RTE), the National Food Security Act, the Disability
Discrimination Act are all steps to bring to the mainstream those who
have been left out, but the problems are those of implementation, of the
absence of punishment for those that deprive others of their rightful
benefits. The State that is steeped in blatant corruption at every level
can offer redress only by creating honest channels of execution of
these schemes and ensuring that the greedy middlemen do not siphon off
taxpayers’ money and deprive the genuine beneficiaries.
Jeeja
Ghosh, Head of Advocacy and Disability Studies at the Indian Institute
of Cerebral Palsy (IICP), and a frequent flier, was made to get off a
plane by the pilot because she has cerebral palsy. Not a stray
occurrence of discrimination, these incidents happen because there are
no deterrents, no exemplary punishment for the perpetrators.
These
disadvantaged groups are considered low on the hierarchy of concerns of
the policy makers and votebank politicians. It is imperative for the
disadvantaged groups to be included in the census and the election
processes so that they are accounted for in future policies, action
plans and allocation of resources.
Recently in Bangalore, 5,000
residents of the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) had their homes
demolished overnight, and were rendered homeless, when the government
entered into a public-private partnership to develop the land occupied
by them. With corruption so rampant in public departments, there is no
certainty that when the homes are ready, any of these original dwellers
will be resettled there. Development at the cost of the weaker sections
of society is pointless as it only serves to widen social disparity. So
while it may be argued that the proposed business establishment, namely a
mall, that will come up in the area will create more jobs for these
evictees, we also know of the poor working conditions and exploitation
that takes place at these low-level, private enterprise jobs. If, on the
other hand, the government were to undertake the development project,
while it may have been able to safeguard people’s rights to some extent,
the problems would be different — poor services, corruption, loss and
wastage of public money.
Corruption annuls every effort towards
development. We pay taxes for motorable roads, walkable pavements,
public transport, safety and security of life and property, but the poor
services and facilities the government provides are of little use to
its physically and economically vulnerable citizens.
Islands of hope“I
am what I am because of who we all are” — this is the Ubuntu philosophy
of the South Africans, the ‘essence of being human’, that no one exists
in isolation. So, for every incident of government-run hospitals
refusing admission to pregnant women, critically sick or injured, there
are people like the autorickshaw driver in Bangalore who provides free
transport for pregnant women to hospital.
For every child with
disability who is denied admission into mainstream schools, there is one
Mrs Mittal, a housewife and volunteer at an NGO who, when she could not
spend the number of hours the student with visual disability she was
reading for, needed, invited him to her home to help him study while she
did her chores. She also encouraged her neighbours to read to him. This
helped the student to complete his post-graduation and qualify for the
Public Service Commission examination. For every one who thinks their
life is hopeless, there is a Swapna, a young widow in a hamlet near
Bangalore, who learned and passed on English and computer skills to
underprivileged children. Working at the One Billion Literates
Foundation, she turned her tragedy into inspiration for several others.
When
we see these people with limited means doing their bit, we must know
that it is not time or resources we are short of, just the intent. Life
demands a lot from each one of us, a little more from some others.
Everyone has their own struggles, their own challenges to overcome,
which is reason enough for us to be kind to each other; to teach our
kids to not laugh at people with mental illnesses, or bully the slow
learner in class; to give the lower berth on the train to the elderly;
to read out and write an exam for those with physical disabilities.
Government
can make policies, pass laws, but the shortfalls can only be filled by
us. The government is us, the corrupt babus, the middlemen, the
profit-making, self-serving public contractors are us. It is for us to
reach out to our fellow human beings and create an inclusive society. It
is time to move the focus from charity to rights, from sympathy to
equality.
Those that have been left out too have to stand up to
be counted, claim their place in the family, society and world. There is
no dearth of positive examples of people who have displayed
extraordinary grit and determination in overcoming their disability,
their economic challenges, to become a part of the mainstream, to be of
value to society. Those who realise their potential, merit social
respect. Each one can contribute in some way. Technology continues to
provide new aids to simplify life for the disabled, the aged, the poor.
It will eventually reach and impact all. But for human love and care to
stay in short supply would be our collective shame.
Source : Deccan herald ( 10th March 2013 )
