“ We Care for You: Sensitizing Youth towards Differently-Abled for Societal

Inclusive Growth”

From Commitments to Outcomes

“The problem is not how to wipe out the differences but how to unite with the differences intact”. -Rabindranath Tagore

Differently Abled: Definition

• Politically correct 1990s euphemism meaning "disabled".

• More precisely it means "lacking expected abilities.“ • Mental disability is generally associated with much more social stigma than physical disability.

Facts

• The number of differently abled people in India is substantial and likely to grow - disability does not “go away” as countries get richer

• Differently abled people in India are subject to deprivation in many dimensions of their lives.

• Social attitudes and stigma play an important role in limiting the opportunities of differently abled people for full participation in social and economic life, often even within their own families.

• India has one of the more progressive disability policy frameworks in the developing world. However, there remain huge challenges operationalizing the policy framework

• Increasing the status and social & economic participation of people with disabilities would have positive effects on everyone, not just disabled people.

Differently Abled statistics in INDIA

Extent of disabilityExtent of disability Share of all PWDShare of all PWD

Can not care for self Can not care for self even with aideven with aid

13.6%13.6%

Can care for self only Can care for self only with aidwith aid

17.217.2

Can care for self w/out Can care for self w/out aidaid

60.260.2

Aid/appliance not Aid/appliance not availableavailable

9.09.0

Need for Awareness

1) They are Poorer and have “conversion handicap”• They are more likely to be in low income groups

2) They often have low awareness of rights and entitlements

3) They are subject to strong social stigma within community and families which is often internalized

Differently Abled People are Subject to Multiple Deprivations

They are much more likely to be illiterate and out of schoolFigure *.*: Share of 6-13 year olds out of school by social category, 2005

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

All childrenMales

FemalesSCST

OBCMuslim

All disabledMentalVisual

Hearing

SpeechLocomotor

Multiple

% of category out of school

India has one of the more progressive disability policy

frameworks in the developing world

• PWD Act, 1995

• National Policy on Persons with Disabilities, 2005

• Ratification of UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Oct. 2007)

• Sector-specific policies emerging – e.g. National Action Plan for Inclusion in Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities – 2005/06

Initiatives taken NASSCOM initiatives for the disabled

Another organization that talks about ‘total inclusion’ is NASSCOM Foundation (NF), the social development arm of NASSCOM, India’s premier information technology (IT) industry body. The organization is engaged in empowering and enabling persons with disabilities (PwDs) in the IT workforce.

Tata SteelAs part of its CSR, Tata Steel, too, claims that it believes in empowering the marginalized sections of society. The company, on a regular basis, also organizes sporting events and cultural programmes for the physically challenged.

On World Disability Day, 2010, to acknowledge that the challenged ones are an equal and important part of the community, the company organized a sports event. Around 200 visually impaired, hearing impaired and physically challenged special children participated in the event.

Contd. IBM technology for disabled

IBM says that it believes in using its core competency – technology – to help solve some of the key issues of society. It developed Reading Companion, a programme to increase literacy among children and adults. It is a speech-recognition technology for the classroom. Accessibility is another programme designed specially to make technology accessible to groups who are conventionally not associated with using technology – physically/mentally challenged or socially/economically backward people.

Key Recommendation: “Get the basics right”

What can we do?

What does that mean in practice ?

• Preventive care - both for mothers through nutritional interventions, and infants through both nutrition and basic immunization coverage. Improve road and workplace safety

• Identifying differently abled people as soon as possible after onset - the system needs major improvements in this most basic function

• Major improvements in early intervention, which can cost effectively transform the lives of differently abled people, their families, and the communities they live and work in

• Getting all children with special needs into school and giving young differently abled adults the skills to participate fully in family and economic life

• Expanding efforts to improve societal attitudes to people with disabilities, relying on public-private partnerships that build on successful models already operating in India

The Way Forward

1. Understand the scale and impact of disability inthe country setting and recognise the diversity ofthe disabled population

2. Advocate and support the human rights model ofdisability rather than the charitable or medicalapproachDisabled people want equal rights, not charity. Disabled people are entitled to the same human rights as all other citizens. In order to meet this standard, all people should celebrate the diversity within their communities and seek to ensure that disabled people can have the full range of human rights – civil,political, social, economic and cultural.

The Way Forward

3. Recognise women and children with disabilities in programmesIt is important to design programmes and projects in a way that securesgender equality and for both men and women to have equal influence onthe design, decision-making and implementation. Furthermore, as womenand children with disabilities are often severely marginalised, specificinitiatives are required to reduce exclusion and discrimination by:• Education projects aimed specifically towards women and children withdisabilities.• Strengthening of disabled women’s networks and networks of parents ofchildren with disabilities.• Specific programmes for children with disabilities.

The Way Forward

4. Include disabled people in the workforceAn inclusive organisation working on poverty issues should employ a reasonable proportion of disabled people among their staff.

Thank You