Disability Legislation in India: Too little, Too late

Legislated to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities A/RES/61/106 adopted on 13 December 2006, India adopted “The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (No. 49 OF 2016)” on 27th December, 2016 (henceforth the Disabilities Act). The Disabilities Act is a revision of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (henceforth the PWD Act). However, the transition from the archaic PWD Act to the Disabilities Act is a mere cosmetic improvement that does little to question the core normative understanding of ability or disability. A mere biological determinism that lends or suspends recognition has transmuted into the basic premise of all forms of treatment extended towards the disabled. Since there is a failure to lend recognition to the disabled in the notions of normal, the socio-political order is dominated by the able bodied individuals much to the detriment of the disabled. The structural oppression is so intrusive that any policy formulation merely builds on the existing framework of oppression or revisits some of the aspects which have been proved to be out rightly hegemonic. The Disabilities Act adopts an approach of difference by listing the categories of disability accorded protection under it. The genesis of this skewed construction of disability can be traced to the PWD Act. This acknowledgement of the existence of a difference then justifies the differential treatment for the disabled. A fundamental objective difference is created between the disabled and the non-disabled people that does not question the unequal treatment accorded to a section of the society. While engaging with some core arguments exploring the socio political processes that impose structural sanctions on the disabled people, this paper argues for revamping the disability specific legislation within the framework of unequal socio- political power relations in the society. The paper looks at the subtle ways in which difference may be stifled in an organization by bringing the ‘social’ into the organization in order to make it inclusive. This paper also highlights the need to conceptualize inclusion in a way which does not lead to assimilation and keeps the diversity of the organization preserved through an understanding of the social world in which the organization exists. Thus, this paper asserts that a politics of difference is a necessary step towards building an inclusive organization, but this politics of difference ought to be situated in the larger socio-political framework. Without a situated understanding of the unequal power structures, the efforts may boomerang.