The Struggles of the Disabled

The struggle of disabled persons is not simply against a physical or mental condition. It is a struggle against a society that is built in a way that excludes them. A person is not ‘disabled’ only because of an impairment, but because the world around them is not designed to include them. This is a fundamental shift in understanding: the problem is not the individual’s body, but the way society is organised.

Compared to the long histories of struggle by Dalits, adivasis, or women, the rights of disabled people have been recognised only very recently. Yet disabled people have existed in every society and every historical period. The scholar and activist Anita Ghai points out that this invisibility is like the condition of the Invisible Man in Ralph Ellison’s novel. In that book, the African American narrator says: “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. … When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, figments of their imagination … indeed everything and anything except me.” In the same way, society refuses to truly see disabled people.

Common public perceptions of disability

The very term ‘disabled’ forces us to question how the public sees disability. Across the world, several common features shape this perception:

• Disability is understood as a biological given — something fixed in the body.
• Whenever a disabled person faces a problem, it is assumed that the problem comes directly from their impairment.
• The disabled person is seen as a victim.
• Disability is thought to be linked to the disabled person’s own self-perception.
• The idea of disability implies that disabled people are always in need of help.

In India, labels like ‘disability’, ‘handicap’, ‘crippled’, ‘blind’, and ‘deaf’ are used interchangeably. Often these words are thrown at people as insults. In a culture that values bodily ‘perfection’, any deviation from the ‘perfect body’ is seen as abnormal, defective, or distorted. Words like bechara (poor thing) reinforce the victim status of the disabled person.

Cultural roots of these attitudes

These attitudes come from a deeper cultural belief: an impaired body is seen as the result of fate. Destiny is blamed, and disabled people are seen as its victims. A common view is that disability is retribution for past karma (actions), from which there is no escape. The dominant cultural construction in India, therefore, treats disability as a characteristic of the individual alone.

Popular images in mythology portray disabled people in an extremely negative way.

Challenging the old assumptions

The term ‘disabled’ itself challenges all these assumptions. Newer terms like ‘mentally challenged’, ‘visually impaired’, and ‘physically impaired’ have replaced older, more negative labels such as ‘retarded’, ‘crippled’, or ‘lame’. The key insight is this: disabled people are rendered disabled not because they are biologically impaired, but because society makes them so.

The link between disability and poverty

The social construction of disability has another important dimension: the close relationship between disability and poverty. Malnutrition, mothers weakened by frequent childbirth, inadequate immunisation programmes, and accidents in overcrowded homes all contribute to a higher incidence of disability among poor people than among those living in easier circumstances. Furthermore, disability itself creates and worsens poverty. It increases isolation and economic strain — not just for the individual, but for the whole family. There is little doubt that disabled people are among the poorest in poor countries.

Efforts by the disabled themselves

Significantly, efforts to change this situation have come from disabled people themselves. The government has had to respond to their demands. It is only recently, because of the efforts of the disabled, that some awareness is building in society about the need to rethink ‘disability’.

Recognition of disability is still absent from the wider educational discourse. The educational system has historically marginalised the issue by maintaining two separate streams — one for disabled students and one for everyone else.

Looking ahead …