22 Challenges and Rights of Women with Disability

U. Gowri

1. INTRODUCTION:

This module attempts to deal with the challenges and rights of women with disability. In general people with disability undergo lot of struggle in their lives to get justice. Although both disabled women and men go through discriminations against them, women with disability experience double burden due to gender and disability. Census of India, 2011 reveals that roughly 2.01 percent of Indian population (21 million) is disabled. Of the total share of disabled population of India, women with disability constitute 44.1 percentage. They experience a double burden and so are doubly discriminated. Both in the public and private domains, they are singled out and neglected to access education, employment and to even found a family. Disabled women are highly invisible and are not included in the developmental process and hence become the most vulnerable ones in the society. This module will try to unveil the challenges they face in the society, the meager rights they are endowed with and further, will discuss about the situations they undergo in their lives.

2.LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

By the end of this module, you will be able to

understand the challenges they face at the physical, social, and psychological level
recognize various rights that women with disability are entitled to

3. WHAT IS DISABILITY?

Disability is defined as “any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being” (WHO, 1976). It is a state that limits or controls a person’s day to day activity. It can hamper the movement, communication or learning and affect her independent living. It may be an abnormality of any one organ and the specific function related to it or a combination of multiple organs and functions. A person may be disabled right from her birth or may be during her life time due to accidents, etc.

3.1 Types of disability:

Based on the abnormality or dysfunction, disability can be divided into various types like

Sensory – affecting sight or hearing
Neurological– affecting a person’s control over movements and speech
Physical– restricted movements by the upper or lower part of the body
ntellectual– affecting the thought process, learning, communication and problem solving
Cognitive– affecting the thought process and understanding
Affective – affecting a person’s emotions and behaviour

To put it into simple terms, the types of disability includes abnormality in seeing, speech, hearing, movement and mental disability. There are also other visible and invisible disabilities like cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Unlike the intellectual/psychiatric disabilities, the physical disabilities are more common and visible. The causes for disability could be pregnancy and birth related causes, serious illness during motherhood, head injury or heredity and sometimes may by a combination of any of these causes.

3.2 Disability Prevalence:

The Census data on the decadal change in the disabled population in 2001 to 2011 reveals that women outnumber men with reference to disability both in rural and urban areas. It also reveals that there is a steep increase in the percentage of women with disability, i.e. from 1.93% in 2001 it had increased to 2.03% in 2011 in rural area and from 1.71% in 2001 to 1.98% in 2011 in urban area.

When we look into various types of disabilities among women, it is generally categorized as impairment in seeing, hearing, speech, movement, mental retardation and mental illness. More number of women fall under the categories of visual, hearing and movement impairments and quite a few have multiple disabilities. Therefore, it is important to look into the kind of problems or challenges they undergo in their day to day life to meet the ends. When there are hurdles to lead a normal life, it becomes a barrier for their development too.

3.3 Self check exercise:

The causes of disability include ——-.

a) pregnancy and birth related causes

b) serious illness during motherhood

c) accidents or head injury

d) heredity

e) a single or a combination of any of these causes.

(Ans. e)

4. BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT:

Barriers are those things that hinder or make it difficult to access to services for individuals. In a society where gender discrimination is conventionally accepted, women with disability are the most affected ones with gender inequality and isolation. They suffer immensely at various levels. They are burdened with lot of social, infrastructural and attitudinal barriers in addition to physical and mental limitations which make their living even worse. Some of the barriers experienced by them can be generally categorized into the following:

4.1Attitudinal barriers:

Women with disabilities are always looked down by others. They are usually viewed as sick, weak, helpless dependents and so not to be exposed to the world. More often their disability is projected to the front and their abilities are silenced or neglected. It is often thought that since disabled women cannot see, walk, talk or hear, they cannot think on their own or they do not have emotions and feelings. They are not seen as normal persons with some abnormality in any one of their functions. With proper support they can feel and perform all their roles like other normal or able bodied persons. They have the same emotions and undergo the same psychological feelings like any other. But they are always seen as persons to be helped and dependent on others at all times. Because of this attitude, disabled women are not allowed to move out their homes, get access to resources and involve themselves in various activities based on their abilities. Many times they are not allowed to decide for themselves and so most of their life decisions are taken by others.

In India, disability is believed to be a consequence of a sin committed earlier. It is not seen as the failure of the social system and therefore, disabled women are always pitted against or hidden entirely. In the developed countries, proper and adequate systems are available to examine, support and develop women with disability and so they can exercise their rights. Unfortunately, in India mostly the parents or the caregivers decide the course of life of these women. Their emotions, feelings, desires and abilities are not recognized by others. This negative attitude results in formation of low self esteem which hinders the development of women with disabilities to a great extent.

4.2 Social barriers:

Generally, in all the societies, women face gender based discrimination in all walks of their lives. Disabled women are doubly disadvantaged and discriminated due to their gender and disability. Being a woman and having disability jeopardizes their situation and they are more vulnerable to the unfairness shown by the society. Right from the birth they are treated badly and are denied justice. It is a known fact that children with congenital disabilities are not cared for and sometimes left to die. This is far more true to happen in the case of a girl. When their survival itself is questioned one cannot deny other discriminations they may have to face in life. If allowed to survive, they may continue to face bias within the family, receive less care and food and left out in family interactions. She may not be exposed to the fruits of education and employment. She will have lesser access to rehabilitation services and no hope of marriage.

Women with disability rather undergo triple discrimination by society, not only because of gender and disability but also by being poor. Poverty adds additional burden to their disability. They are being forced to be marginalized and isolated. They live as the poorest of the poor with nothing left to look forward to.

4.3 Infrastructural / Physical barriers:

The infrastructural or physical barriers mean the physical accessibility to places and resources. The disabled women encounter lot of problems due to unmindfully built up physical structures which were designed for the normal ones. The accessibility to public places and buildings become a nightmare for them. To start with access to educational institutions like schools, colleges and universities, for employment – offices of public and private employments, factories, industries and other similar organizations are terrifying for them. Women with disabilities do not have the same access to health care as their able bodied counterparts though the need is more for them. Not to think too far, to carry out their daily routine, walking on the roads and enjoy other recreational activities is still harder for them. None of these structures have facilities like ramps or elevators for easy movement of disabled especially for the ones with loco motor and visual disabilities.

The combination of lack of adequate mobility aids and inaccessibility makes them remain uneducated and unemployed. When women in urban centres itself face these many difficulties, nothing can explain the plight of rural disabled women. The rough, unpaved mud roads, lack of schools in the nearby vicinity, lack of other infrastructural facilities like library, toilets, proper class rooms and the distance to be travelled discourage them from having dreams of education and development. Lack of health care leads to early and premature death, continued sufferings due to ill health and inadequate personal assistance and negligence add up to their distress.

4.4 Organizational barriers:

Organizational barriers include the entire gamut of lack of social and welfare policies, rules and regulations, priorities and facilities, lack of adequate assistive technologies, non- availability of forums and groups to voice the opinion, lack of access to information, meager allocation of time and resources and low status and relationships enjoyed in a society. All these systems have to coordinate with one another for an effective mainstreaming and rehabilitation of women with disabilities. When women in total and especially women with disabilities enjoy a very low status in the society and their needs are not given top priority, one cannot think of the other systems to fall in place. With very less access to assistive technologies and very less support groups to voice their conditions, it is difficult for disabled women to cut across the barriers and achieve their best.

5. CHALLENGES OF DISABLED WOMEN:

Any functional impairment is not always converted to disability. It is only when the disabled are not given enough opportunities to utilize their potential; these barriers change the impairment into disability. Gender acts as a catalyst to this change. Many of the official records and data are gender blind and therefore disabled women are yet to receive the due attention towards their rights. Some of the challenges experienced by disabled women are:

5.1 Survival:

Disabled women face discrimination right from their birth. When the life of the normal female infants is ended by foeticide and infanticide, the plight of disabled girl children is worse. With the help of highly sophisticated reproductive technologies, the imperfect foetus is eliminated denying their right to survival. Though some of them succeed in that, they continue to suffer throughout their life for other survival needs.

5.2 Poverty:

Disabled girl children in the poor families are the depressed of the depressed in the society. Due attention and care are not given to them. Most of the times their needs are neglected and therefore they do not show the required physical and mental growth. Poor disabled girls struggle for everything throughout their life for example, from ill health, malnutrition and low level of quality of life.

5.3 Literacy and Education:

Access to literacy and education even now remains as a big challenge for disabled women. When compared to men with disabilities these women are less educated. Only a very few end up in higher education. Gender plays a significant negative role in identifying the educational needs of disabled girls and so very less number of girls is only admitted in special schools.

Moreover, when there is generally a skewed teacher student ratio, how can a girl with physical or intellectual disability will get access to adequate attention? Again, higher education is a great challenge for them as they face problems like accessibility and accommodation. Gender and disability stereotyping hinders them to aim for higher aspirations and employment in different fields.

5.4 Vocational training:

Vocational training is an area where the normal person herself finds it difficult to get entry into. The need for vocational training to women and girls is not yet understood clearly. Also there is a patriarchal thinking that only men are fit for technical skill orientation and women and girls should confine themselves to the domestic chores. The organizational and physical barriers also influence this kind of a thought where women with disability find it difficult to reach the industrial centres and other vocational centres which are usually situate in the urban areas in which rural women find it difficult to access. It is very important to note here that how many women who are vocationally trained are placed in employment? The placement services are very poor for disabled women.

5.5 Employment and paid work:

In a society where able bodied women are denied to education, productive work and health care, it is considered as a waste of resource to help of women with disability. The market forces have totally denied them opportunity as if they do not have any role to play in the economy. Therefore, they are placed in significantly lowest cadres where they are denied of full time employment and equal wages. Under the reservation policy, 3 percent of the public sector employments are reserved for disabled people. There are two questions here. First, given the increase in the number of disabled women both in urban and rural areas, will this 3% reservation be enough to cater to the employment needs of disabled? Second, should we not push it further i.e. to increase the percentage of reservation for disabled in public employments? Even in that 3%, it does not specifically mention as to what percentage is allotted for women with disability. It is a general quota where obviously women will not be preferred.

5.6 Sexuality and reproduction:

Women with disabilities are usually considered as asexual. The traditional roles of a woman like lover, mother, nurturer and a home maker are seen as inappropriate for them. They face lot of limitations in playing the traditional roles. Marriage seems to a mirage for these women. Either they don’t marry, or marry later or when married be divorced and always lead a life of being alone. This situation sometimes may force them into exploitative or abusive relationship because of their limited social and economic sources.

Disabled mothers are always looked down by the society as they are considered unfit to bear the pregnancy and their skills in bringing up their children are always questioned. They encounter a lot of problems in motherhood because of the irrational stigma attached to their disability. Even the literary and feminist writings have not thought of it and so by and large, they remain invisible.

5.7 Health:

The general health status of both physically and mentally disabled women is highly deplorable, especially those with locomotive and mental disorders. Most of the time their health needs are unattended to. This aggravates their poor health conditions leading to added disability. If their health needs are addressed at the right point of time, they may even perform better. Women with disabilities undergo depression and other psychological conditions which will affect their normal functioning.

5.8 Malnutrition:

The consumption of required nutritional intake is a big challenge for disabled women. It has been proved by various studies that already there is gender discrimination in nutritional intake and the quality of food given to girls or women in a family. When fueled by disability, women are less cared for and their nutritional supplements are not given importance. Most of the times they are undernourished as they are not considered as productive members of the family. Under nutrition leads to lots of other complications related to their disability and their physical and mental health in general.

5.9 Violence:

It is a clear contradiction that though disabled women are considered as asexual, they are the ones at higher risk of being sexually abused. As girls and women with disability are more vulnerable, they remain unprotected against any assault on their honour like sexual harassment, rape, or forced prostitution. This vulnerability increases for those who are marginalized and dependent. Women who live under poor economic conditions often have to undergo these atrocities because of their disability.

5.10 More to reflect:

Do you think that it is possible to change the attitude and perception of society towards women with disability and bring a more conducive and developmental environment?
Can the state intervention alone bring changes in the life of disabled and equip them to face the challenges ahead ?

5.11 Self check exercise:

Low employment rates among disabled women is due to ———
Under the reservation policy, ——– percent of the public sector employments are reserved for disabled people.
Lack of adequate assistive technologies is one of ——- barriers.
(Ans. (1) social stigma (2) 3 (3) organizational ).

6. RIGHTS OF WOMEN WITH DISABILITY:

Women with disability are differentiated from others in terms of lack of equal access to education, health care, reduced opportunities in employment and therefore to social inclusion. Because of their reduced status in the social space, they face violence and unfairness. They have to tolerate all forms of atrocities against their body and brain. This was well understood and recognized by the United Nations which intends to protect the rights and dignity of women, especially disabled women. The first International human rights treaty called “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006 and came into force in 2008. It ensures to protect and promote disabled women and the member countries are obligated to ensure full enjoyment of human rights by them.

6.1 The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

The core provisions of CRPD include all the universal rights like social, political, economic and cultural rights and fundamental freedoms declared for everyone. Apart from that the specific rights for disabled are right to accessibility, mobility, independent living, participation and cultural life. It is the responsibility of the member countries to ensure the rights to access to roads, buildings, public places, information, the right to rehabilitation, the right to participate in political, social and cultural life and the right to recreation and sports leading to social inclusion.

The UN Convention (Disability Convention) stresses raising the awareness of the general community on the rights of disabled women to fight back the stereotypes and bias based on disability and gender. These campaigns should address the issues of inclusiveness and positive promotion of their ability and skills in the labour market and the workplace. It emphasizes the need for physical, service and information accessibility. Disability friendly technology can play a greater role in this.

The CRPD affirms equality before law. The states should in turn assert equal treatment of women with disability and appropriate measures should be taken to ensure organizational support to women to exercise their rights. They should be assured the right to inclusive education and the state should take measures to impart special education for various categories of disabled women like for visually challenged – Braille learning, for hearing impaired – sign language and employ special education teachers and other professionals to impart through alternative educational materials and technologies.

The habilitation and rehabilitation rights of disabled as ensured by the Convention can be affirmed by the states through provision of maximum independence and participation in social and cultural life. Enough opportunities must be given to them in the fields of education, employment, health and social services and the state should promote multidisciplinary assistive technologies to support their skills.

Regarding work and employment rights, women with disabilities should be given opportunities in suitable employments, the right to equal pay, just and humane working conditions, and self employment and entrepreneurship prospects.

6.2 Indian Scenario:

Gender equality and justice is protected in our constitution in the form of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles. It prohibits all forms of discrimination against women and encourages enacting legislations favoring them. Apart from that, our Constitution promotes and encourages the States to have certain affirmative and supportive plans and programmes especially for women and their development. In India, the human rights and fundamental rights applicable to all the citizens are equally applicable to disabled people also. This includes equality rights, equal opportunity in employment, and right to decent life.

Currently four legislations are operational for persons with disabilities. They include the Mental Health Act, Persons with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Council of India Act and the National Trust Act. Since all these legislations are based on different approaches and their services are extended accordingly, there is a lack of holistic approach towards the rights of the disabled. Though all these legislations affirm to protect the interests of the disabled and aim at their social, political and cultural empowerment, they tend to follow the welfare approach. Though these legislations guarantee participation, equality, treatment and care of mentally ill and rehabilitation for disabled, the right based approach which is envisioned by the UN Convention is silently neglected in them.

India became a signatory to the UN Convention only in 2007. Therefore India needs to confirm to the Disability Convention and henceforth a revision of all these legislations confirming to the convention becomes necessary. But in reality, very few efforts are taken to bring changes or amendments in the legislations to suit to the current needs of the disabled people. The Convention recognizes the hardships that women with disability undergo, the maltreatment against them and highlights the need to incorporate a gender perspective towards empowering them by satisfaction of fundamental rights and human rights which they are entitled to. But the PWD Act is silent on the discrimination and violence against women with disabilities.

The four main provisions appropriate to disabled women under the Convention are (1) principle of equality, (2) recognition of the multiple discrimination faced by women with disability and the responsibility of the state to enhance their quality of life and (3) protection from all forms exploitation and (4) ensuring access to social protection. Here also the PWD act fails to compel the state government to enforce a gender perspective approach in eliminating all forms of discrimination and ensure access to resources.

The Mental Health Act briefs about the treatment of mentally ill in an institutionalized setting. It fails to approach mental illness as a public health issue. The role of family and community and the importance of community based rehabilitation have been totally neglected. Unnecessary detentions, physical and sexual harassment of women with mental illness is often quoted as the negative impact of such institutionalized treatments.

7. TOOLS FOR EMPOWERMENT:

It is not enough that rights of the disabled girls and women are guaranteed through conventions and legislations. It has to be taken forward to ensure that these women are treated with dignity and enjoy their full rights. Some of the tools for this empowerment could be:

7.1 Inclusive Education:

Not withholding the limitations of inclusive education, wherever necessary and possible these girls are to be inducted into mainstream education. Opportunities are to be provided to them to understand their strengths and skills. Only through inclusive education, these girls and women can be inducted into the society and the society in turn, can be made to understand the challenges of these people.

7.2 Sensitizing the Community:

Though it is the role of the Government to make rules or laws, it has to direct everyone to follow them. It should be become a part of the functions of the legislators, administrators and everyone in the society to get sensitized about the problems of the disabled and their rights. Sensitizing the family is the big challenge faced by the forums which are fighting for their rights.

7.3 Awareness among Disabled:

Many times, the disabled, especially the disabled women themselves are not aware of their rights and the various other facilities and welfare measures available for them. This restricts their usage of assistive technologies, enjoyment of rights and educational and employment opportunities. Therefore, it is very important to increase their level of awareness on various issues concerning them, which will, in turn, increase their self confidence to exercise their rights.

7.4 Self check exercise:

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” was adopted by the UN General Assembly in ——– .
——- is one of the specific rights for disabled. are, mobility, independent living, participation and cultural life.
The visually challenged are educated through ——– .
(Ans. (1) 2006 (2) right to accessibility (3) Braille learning

SUMMARY:

This module is designed to give an over view of the challenges faced by women with disability and the rights those women are entitled to. Women with disability are neglected from time immemorial and there are always a negative picture created about them. Though their needs and rights are the same and similar to others, they are totally ignored and left to pitiable conditions. The society always down sizes their capacities and capabilities and therefore not enough opportunities are given to them for their full realization. Their education and employment rights are not recognized by the government, and so little has been done to empower them or enjoy their fundamental and human rights. All the International forums and conventions lay emphasis on empowering women with disabilities and stress on equality and an inclusive gender perspective. But they are yet to become a reality. Women with disability continue to suffer right from birth, to get education, to get trained in skills, to get a gainful employment, to found family, to access public places and get a fair and proper treatment. Suitable constitutional and legal amendments are necessary to support these women and encourage fullest participation in social and public life.

you can view video on Challenges and Rights of Women with Disability

Web links

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/comp504.htm
http://www.independentliving.org/docs3/chp1997.html
www.un.org/womenwatch/enable/
www.un.org/disabilities/documents/hlmdd/hlmdd_unwomen.doc
www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/686-women-with-disabilities.html
https://www.hrw.org/…/india-women-disabilities-locked-away-and-abuse
www.disabilityworld.org/09-11_04/women/india.shtml
ncw.nic.in/…/EMPLOYMENT_RIGHTS_OF_DISABLED_WOMEN.pdf

References:

Anuradha, M. (2004), Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities. In Mohapatra, C.S. (Ed.), Disability Management in India – Challenges & Commitments, Secunderabad, National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped.
Barnes C, Mercer G, (2003), Disability, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Ghai, Anita, (2007), (Dis)embodied Form: Issues of Disabled Women, New Delhi, Har Anand Publications.
Hans, Asha (Ed), (2003), Women, Disability and Identity, New Delhi, Sage Publications.