Interrogating Disability in India: Theory and Practice

206 Pages·2016·2.118 MB·English

by  Nandini Ghosh (eds.)

Dynamics of Asian Development
Nandini Ghosh Editor
Interrogating
Disability in
India
Theory and Practice
Dynamics of Asian Development
Series editor
Anthony P. D’Costa, Carlton, Australia
Editorial Board
Tony Addison, Helsinki, Finland
Amiya Bagchi, Kolkata, India
Amrita Chhachhi, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Akira Goto, Bunkyo, Japan
Barbara Harriss-White, Oxford, UK
Keun Lee, Seoul, South Korea
R. Nagaraj, Mumbai, India
Rene E. Ofreneo, Baguio, Philippines
Rajah Rasiah, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Ma Rong, Beijing, China
Ashwani Saith, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Gita Sen, Bangalore, India
Andrew Walter, Melbourne, Australia
Christine Wong, Oxford, UK
TheseriessituatescontemporarydevelopmentprocessesandoutcomesinAsiaina
globalcontext.Stateinterventionaswellasneoliberalpolicieshascreatedunusual
economicandsocialdevelopmentopportunities.Therearealsoserioussetbacksfor
marginalizedcommunities,workers,theenvironment,andsocialjustice.Theriseof
China, India, and new dynamism of South Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam in East
and South East Asia have given a new meaning to Asian development dynamics.
Japan’s energetic ties with India and Vietnam, Korea joining the OECD’s
Development Assistance Committee, and China and India’s investments and
foreign aid in Africa and Latin America are some of the new processes of
development whose impact transcends the vast Asian region. Globalization
compounds uneven development, affecting macroeconomic stability, internal and
internationalmigration,classandcastedynamics,genderrelations,regionalparity,
educationandhealth,agricultureandruralemployment,informalsector,innovation
possibilities, and equity. Thus the series views development studies as an
unfinishedagendaofeconomic,social,political,andculturalinteractionsinafluid
policyandglobalcontexts.Theeditor,withtheassistanceofadistinguishedgroup
of development scholars from Asia and elsewhere specializing in a variety of
disciplinary and thematic areas, welcomes proposals that critically assess the
above-mentioned wide-ranging developing issues facing Asian societies. With
Asia’s contemporary transformation, the series promotes the understanding of
Asia’sinfluenceontheprospectsofdevelopmentelsewhere.Theeditorencourages
interdisciplinary,heterodoxapproacheswithinthesocialsciences,andcomparative
work with solid theoretically informed empirical research. Critical development
policy debates in Asia and regional governance issues that have a bearing on
development outcomes are also sought.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13342
Nandini Ghosh
Editor
Interrogating Disability
in India
Theory and Practice
123
Editor
NandiniGhosh
Institute of Development Studies Kolkata
Kolkata
India
ISSN 2198-9923 ISSN 2198-9931 (electronic)
Dynamics ofAsian Development
ISBN978-81-322-3593-4 ISBN978-81-322-3595-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-3595-8
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016945108
©SpringerIndia2016
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar
methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom
therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinor
foranyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.
Printedonacid-freepaper
ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature
TheregisteredcompanyisSpringer(India)Pvt.Ltd.
Acknowledgements
The chapters published in this volume are revised and updated editions of papers
presentedinatwo-daymultidisciplinaryconferencetitled“InterrogatingDisability:
Theory and Practice”, held on 27 and 28 September 2012 at the Institute of
DevelopmentStudiesKolkata.TheconferencewasthefirstofitskindinIndia.As
the convener of the conference, I appreciate the encouragement provided by Prof.
AmiyaKumarBagchi,EmeritusProfessoroftheInstitute.Dr.RamkrishnaChatterji
providedthecriticalsupportfororganizingtheconference.Iwouldliketothankall
my colleagues and staff at IDSK who have been with me through the process of
publishing this book.
A big thanks to all the contributors who have painstakingly reworked their
papers and waited patiently for the publication of this book.
Kolkata Nandini Ghosh
v
Contents
1 Introduction: Interrogating Disability in India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Nandini Ghosh
2 The Models Approach in Disability Scholarship:
An Assessment of Its Failings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Shilpaa Anand
3 Diversity at Workplace and in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Tanmoy Bhattacharya
4 Right to Care, Home and Family: Ethics of Responsibility
Towards Persons with Disability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Rukmini Sen
5 Living Arrangement and Capability Deprivation
of the Disabled in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Achin Chakraborty and Subrata Mukherjee
6 The Right to Be Different: Autism and Advocacy
in Urban India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Shubhangi Vaidya
7 Power and Leveraging in a Disability Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Madhura Nagchoudhuri and Srilatha Juvva
8 Negotiating Femininity: Lived Experiences
of Women with Locomotor Disabilities in Bengal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Nandini Ghosh
9 Women and Men at Work: Livelihood Experiences
of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) in West Bengal. . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Ipsita Sapra
vii
viii Contents
10 The Disability Rights Movement in India: Its Origin,
Methods of Advocacy, Issues and Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Jagdish Chander
11 Disabled People’s Organizations in India:
Assertions and Angsts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Nandini Ghosh
Editor and Contributors
About the Editor
NandiniGhosh isanassistantprofessorofsociologyattheInstituteofDevelopment
Studies,Kolkata.Shehasabachelor’sdegreeinsociologyfromPresidencyCollege
Kolkata,amaster’sdegreefromtheUniversityofCalcutta,andaPh.D.fromtheTata
Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her areas of interest are qualitative research
methodology,sociologyofgender,marginalizationandsocialexclusionandsocial
movements. She has coedited a book titled Pratyaha Everyday Lifeworlds:
Dilemmas, Contestations and Negotiations (Primus 2015). Her other publications
include“BhaloMeye:CulturalConstructionofGenderandDisabilityinBengal”,in
RenuAdlakha(ed.),DisabilityStudiesinIndia:GlobalDiscourses,Local Realities
(RoutledgeIndia,2013)and“Sitesofoppression:Dominantideologiesandwomen
with disabilities in India”, in Tom Shakespeare (ed.), The Disability Research
Reader:NewVoices(RoutledgeUK,2015).([email protected])
Contributors
Shilpaa Anand is an assistant professor, Department of English, Maulana Azad
National Urdu University. Her research interests are disability history, culture and
corporeality, disability studies and the humanities. ([email protected])
Tanmoy Bhattacharya is associate professor in linguistics at the Centre for
Advanced Studies in Linguistics, University of Delhi. He was the coordinator,
Equal Opportunity Cell of the University of Delhi, and was the convenor of the
UGCCommitteeonHigherEducationandDisability.Hiscoreareasofinterestare
language and disability, disability and education, sign linguistics and deaf educa-
tion. ([email protected])
ix
x EditorandContributors
Achin Chakraborty is professor of economics at the Institute of Development
Studies, Kolkata. His research interests include welfare economics, human devel-
opment, health economics and microeconomic issues in development economics.
([email protected])
JagdishChander teachespoliticalscienceatHinduCollegeinNewDelhi.Hehas
a Ph.D. degree in disability studies from Syracuse University, and his interests
include research on different aspects of lives of disabled people.
([email protected])
SrilathaJuvva isanassociateprofessor,CentreforDisabilityStudiesandAction,
School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her research
interests include mental health, disability, family therapy and disaster and mental
health issues. ([email protected])
Subrata Mukherjee is an associate professor at the Institute of Development
Studies,Kolkata,andactivelyengagedinteachingM.Phil.coursesandresearch.He
has a Ph.D. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, through the
CentreforDevelopmentStudies(Kerala).Hisareasofresearchinterestsarequality,
inequality and financing-related issues in health and health care issues of the
elderly. He is a founder member and former joint secretary of the Indian Health
Economics and Policy Association. ([email protected])
Madhura Nagchoudhuri is an assistant professor, Centre for Equity and Justice
forChildrenandFamilies,SchoolofSocialWork,TataInstituteofSocialSciences,
Mumbai. Her areas of interest include gender, disability and education. (madhu-
[email protected])
Ipsita Sapra is an associate professor, School of Livelihoods and Development,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. She has a Ph.D. degree in social
sciencesfromTISS,Mumbai,andhasundertakenresearchinthearea ofdisability
and livelihoods and disability policies. ([email protected])
Rukmini Sen is an associate professor, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar
University Delhi. She teaches courses on law and society, relationships and
affinities, women’s movements and researching the rural. She is currently working
on her manuscript, Exploring the Everyday, (Re)-constructing the Social:
Smriti-katha as Sociological Sites (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press,
India). She is the coeditor of a special issue of the Journal of Indian Law and
Society(January2016)“IndianFeminisms,LawReformandtheLawCommission
of India: Special Issue in Honour of Lotika Sarkar”. ([email protected])
ShubhangiVaidya isanassistantprofessorattheSchoolofInter-Disciplinaryand
Trans-Disciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi. She is
a sociologist with current research interests in the interdisciplinary areas of dis-
abilitystudies,genderstudies,labouranddevelopmentandeducation.Herdoctoral