August 5, 2019
Our guest columnist this week is a second year law student at the
National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Anchal is also the
founder of the NLS Diversible Alliance which seeks to promote the interests
of people of disabilities on campus.
Prejudices against persons with disabilities are explicit in all walks of
life. They are also evident in facts and fiction. Right from the
Mahabharata epic which talks about
Dhrithrashtra who could not be crowned king because of his
blindness right up to the climax of the film Sholay, where
Thakur amputates the arms of dacoit Gabbar
Singh as he believes that disabled someone is worse than killing
them.
Many such instances are unspoken forms of super-humanising or de-humanising
people with disabilities. It can be said that the implicit discrimination
against people with disabilities is more prevalent than explicit and is on
the rise in recent times.
A recent report in the Journal of Social Issues claims that
non-disabled people generally tend to have unspoken attitudes against persons
with disabilities. These are feelings which are beyond the control of a
person and reflect what is felt within. Stated biases on the other hand are
controllable. Non-disabled people internalise the idea that disabled people
are to be treated with pity, sympathy or regarded as an embodiment of
inspiration and greatness.
The same study also says that implicit biases against disabled people grow
with age and that older people tend to have more negative attitudes.
The research also reveals that growing interaction between disabled and
non-disabled people reduced such biases. The discrimination against
disabled people is often perpetrated by people who lack this experience.
These biases then become a fundamental part of the dominant belief system.
They take the form of attitudinal barriers that worsen the disability of
disabled people. Does this research hold relevance in the Indian context?
The answer is yes because the belief that disability is linked to the sins
in the past birth has much relevance in India. Take the statement by
Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam BJP minister, who said that
many diseases like cancer and other accidents are the result of sins in
past lives.
The lack of access to pubic places is also a result of such attitudinal
barriers. Like Arunima Sinha, the first female amputee to
climb Mount Everest was denied entry into a temple as she
could follow a particular dress code due to her disability.
Such instances show that accessibility is not the only barrier faced by
disabled people, the challenges increase exponentially due to attitudinal
barriers they encounter on a daily basis.
According to the 2011 Census, India has a disabled
population of 21 million. We cannot afford to ignore them. India definitely
needs inclusive laws and efficient enforcement of those laws to disable the
disability of this community and enable their abilities. The larger public
also needs to become sensitised and shed these attitudinal barriers, so
society becomes more inclusive and disabled-friendly.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/ableism-in-fact-and-fiction-guest-column-by-anchal-bhatheja
