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Disability, Stratification and Inclusion in INDIA

ABSTRACT

Social stratification is a topic of intense study among sociologists and is the

most binding and central concern of sociology. Race, gender, religion, and economic status are
just a few of the criteria by which social stratification is imposed in our multicultural society. Caste,
prominent to INDIA, is known as oldest surviving social stratification. Stratification is universal,
hierarchial, purely social and in diverse forms. Mainstream sociology focused stratification as a
concept mainly concerned with employment and the labour market. Unfortunately, it neglected the
topic of disability. So, from different sources, it is confirmed that, ‘disability’ in itself is a factor of
stratification independent of economic and social factors. In many ways it is related to social class
also. The disabled are the group of people, who are found very less in labour market. Some of
them have permanently withdrawn from labour market and some even not entered in it. Statistics
of education, health and employment of disabled reveals the social stigma regarding them. Social
exclusion is more than the non-participation in job market, especially in nation like INDIA. So,
social inclusion is very essential to ”enable the disabled” .In the end, different measures
regarding inclusion of disabled in INDIA are discussed.

Disability and social stratification:

Sociology, in form of formal discipline take its birth as a result of drastic economic,
social and political changes like industrial, French revolutions of modern world. So, the founding
fathers focused mainly on these factors as central to sociology of stratification. Consequently, the
works done in continuation to them focused on new forms of economic and social differentiations
which shaped the processes of production, distribution, consumption and the structures of
hierarchial, bureaucratic organisations after industrial advancement. The stratification studies were
mainly concerned with the stability and social order. In western societies, the major focus was on
class and it was conceptualized in different ways. Employment was considered as key social
relationship and market as key social contexts where stratification is produced, reproduced and
structured. Concepts like class consciousness, class conflict, class struggle, social mobility were
born. Status as a factor of stratification, is often neglected as secondary structural factor. Studies
on women got enough recognition in sociology regarding their employment and social movements.
The disabled are also a part of society, “the largest undermined minority”. The disabled are also
excluded from employment, labour market and political recognisation. But they were not given
satisfactory importance in sociology. I think, the reason may be that they are practically invisible.
The handicaps are not considered as significant social actors. Assuming this, I take this
opportunity to present this paper on disability studies.

DEFINITIONS:

Impairment is the defect, absence of a limb, organ or bodily mechanism which

covers a range of physical, mental and sensory stimulations. Disability is loss or reduction of ability
due to impairment. Handicap is the constraint, disadvantage, restriction due to disability. Disability
and handicap are socially constructed. Everyone suffers from some degree of impairment as they
grow elder, but not every impairment leads to disability.

CLASSIFICATION:
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All disabilities are not natural/inevitable, it depends on categorization, medical

intervention, resources etc. A classification of three categories can be made based on age and
causes of disability. People who are (1) impaired at birth or early childhood (2) impaired from
illness/injury (3)impaired due to normal aging process. Disability is strongly related to class, social
disadvantage and social mobility. Manual workers suffer more from disability than non-manual
workers. Disabled have lower incomes, often in dept suffer from deprivation. Disabled face
discrimination, low opportunities and less career guidance. Discontinuity(sudden break) and
Drift(gradual break) from employment are two market trajectories of disabled workers .
Disability leads to stratification in following four ways. (1)The disabled requires
extra economic resources.(2)Presence of disability impacts on income of non-disabled family
members. Women as carers often withdraw from employment .Children of disabled are more likely
to have unemployment. Thus disability results in modification of class structure.(3)Many disabled
of working age are outside of market(unemployment) . (4)There is class distribution of disability.
From Peter Townsend’s survey, it is evident that the disabled children in manual labour are twice
to non-manual labour category .This is due to the poor environmental conditions like housing,
lifestyle, diet, health access etc. This leads to downward social mobility. Disability in working class
can be considered as cumulative consequence of disability related constraints over generations.
From this section, it is clear that disability is independent of employment and labour market. So,
disability in itself is a factor of production of stratification.

DISABILITY, STIGMA and SOCIAL EXCLUSION in INDIA:

Magnitude of problem:
Globally, around 1.3 billion people are disabled i.e. 1 in 6 experience significant
disability.80% of disabled have hidden impairments. In INDIA, 2.21% population suffers with
disability . The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of INDIAN government identified 21
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types of disabilities.  Among the disabled population 56% (1.5 Cr) are males and 44%(1.18 Cr )
are females. In the total population, the male and female population are 51% and 49%
respectively. Majority (69%) of the disabled population resided in rural areas (1.86 Cr disabled
persons in rural areas and 0.81 Cr in urban areas). In urban areas, 67% of the total disabled
persons are literate vis –a –vis 49% in rural areas.The number of disabled persons is highest in
the age group 10-19 years (46.2 lakhs). 17% of the disabled population is in the age group 10-19
years and 16% of them are in the age group 20-29 years. Elderly (60+ years) disabled constituted
21% of the total disabled at all India level.  20% of the disabled persons are having disability in
movement, 19% are with disability in seeing, and another 19 % are with disability in hearing. 8%
has multiple disabilities. Among the male disabled, 22% are having disability in movement, 18%
each has disability in seeing/ in hearing while 8% of them suffered from multiple disability. In the
case of the female disabled, 20% each has disability in seeing / in hearing, 18% has disability in
movement and 8% of them are having multiple disability. Among the disabled non –workers with
disability in seeing, 42.7% are dependents and 28% are students; among those with disability in
hearing 38.7% are dependents and 32.5% are students. In the case of disabled non –workers,
with disability in speech, 33.5% are dependents while 37.2% are students, while among those with
disability in movement 49.8% are dependents and 19.7% are students. 36.34% of the total
disabled population is reported as ‘workers’ .

Disability as stigma:

From the above statistics it may seem simply that the data is just like that of the
minorities, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and their backwardness and the disabled are very
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less when compared to whole population. But the range of problems related to the social existence
of disabled appeal more attention and very sincere measures. The disabled face many
psychological and socio-economic problems. The problems of all disabled are not same and vary
based on cultural, social, economic as well as topographical conditions 13.In INDIA, disabled face
people with different religious beliefs and mythological perspectives/views about their physical or
mental disability attributing something wrong with the person on other. This complicates the issue.
The families of disabled are seen as spoiled and stigmatic on the other people of society. The
disabled children live between people who don’t spare mental and physical challenging children
and people who show sympathy, usually large in number 14. The general tendencies among the
people who view the disabled children with suspicion make their lives very bitter besides the
struggle of parents. Stigmatizing them as abnormal, further make the things worse for such
children as well as the families who develop anxiety syndromes with psychosomatic implications . 15

The rehabilitation becomes problem for the disabled due to prejudices and humiliation from society
.The people who received help for mental illness are often treated differently and in negative way.
So, it is clear that the declaration of abnormality leads to labeling of spoiled or stigmatic . Goffman
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refers to stigma as an attribute that is significantly discrediting . A stigmatic person is seen as

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having a 'spoiled identity'. Stigmatized people are avoided so that others are not polluted. Stigma
affect the people in different ways. First, friends, relatives tend to treat the disabled as inferior.
Second, the employment is often refused to them. Third, the stigma is turned into a label . 18

Disability and social exclusion:

The disabled have a low level position in the status hierarchy. They
are manipulated by force over which they have no control. The decisions and actions are imposed
upon them. People suffering from mental disability are worst affected to the stigma. Disability is
more visible in public spaces.Disability stories are told in the media, often in tokenistic ways.
These all conditions besides the natural impairment make the disability and handicap as socially
constructed concepts which results in social exclusion of the disabled themselves and their
families. The result of this exclusion of disabled from education, participation and employment
costs around 7% of INDIA’s national G.D.P. This alarming situation needs a great attention for
measures which help to build an inclusive society where the disabled are not left behind.

Social Inclusion of Disabled in INDIA:

Provisions for disabled in INDIA:

The UNO has published ‘The World report on Disability’ which provided
recommendations for action to achieve an inclusive society, enabling the disabled to realize their
real potential without any discrimination. India signed the “United Nations Convention on Rights of
Persons with Disability”(CRPD). Enactment of a new disability legislation (Rights of Persons with
Disabilities Act 2016) increased the number of disabilities from 7 conditions to 21. The
government aimed to shift its focus on disabilities from the individual to society, i.e., from a
medical model of disability to a social or human rights model of disability. The subject of ‘relief of
the disabled and unemployable’ is specified in the state list of the Seventh Schedule of the
INDIAN constitution. Article 41 of INDIAN constitution guides STATE to make effective provisions
for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of disablement.

Major challenges:
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A large number of disabilities are preventable including those which are caused
due to accidents, injuries, birth, maternal conditions and malnutrition. The lack of awareness, lack
of care, negligence, poverty, lack of good and affordable health facilities are the major challenges
regarding health. Many disabled are capable of productive work. But they are mostly found with
very low employment rates compared to normal people. This situation is more worse in private
sector. The lack of availability of special schools for disabled, lack of accessibility to such schools,
lack of trained teachers, lack of materials for the disabled are the challenges in field of education.
Political parties do not consider disabled as the large electorate and disabled face barriers to
participate in party politics. Poor implementation of policies aimed for the disabled slows the
inclusion of the disabled.

A Way Forward:
The preventive measures regarding the disability due to accidents and
employment hazards needed to be implemented effectively. Awareness regarding health defects
should be spread among pregnant women especially from the poor and rural sections of the nation
can address the occurrence of the disability at birth .The mechanism to identify defects at birth is
launched by INDIAN health ministry under comprehensive newborn screening programme.
Special schools with special needs may enable the disabled to get good education. The proper
action plan is needed to take steps which create a proper channel of transition between the
special schools and outer world schools. All new developments should incorporate the
accessibility principles which complement Accessible India Campaign. Information and
communication technologies have the potential to enhance the social, cultural, political and
economic participation of the disabled. The good representation of disabled in all ministries,
commissions and committees in framing policies for inclusion of disabled is necessary. This helps
to fill all vacant posts for disabled in public sector also. Above all a society of empathy is needed
where a person feels the agony of the other. A just society where the disabled are protected from
social stigma should be the first goal to be achieved. This can be done by huge social
campaigning of the voluntary organizations, professional associations, universities and
governments.

CONCLUSION
This paper on disability, stratification and inclusion in INDIA is very dynamic. The
disability-a social concept, as a factor in itself which produces, structures and reproduces social
stratification is discussed. The disability of working class is the cumulative consequence of
disability related conditions over generations. An emphasis is made for further research on this
topic. I tried to throw light on the disability in INDIAN context. The magnitude of the problem of the
disabled in INDIA is discussed based on statistics. The myths and superstitions which created a
social stigma complicated the agony of the disabled. Different attitudes of people towards the
disabled made their lives bitter. This lead to social exclusion which is more than non-participation
in society and costs huge loss to the nation. The provisions provided for them in INDIAN
constitution are mentioned. The major challenges in the inclusion of disabled and the measures to
be taken for their inclusion are discussed. The emphasis laid on the just society free of myths,
superstitions and stigma towards disabled is shown as the emerging demand through this paper. I
would like to conclude with a famous quote of Robert M.Hensel-“There is no greater disability in
society, than the inability to see a person as more”.
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References:
Goffman, Erving, (1961), Asylums: Essays on the Social situations of Mental Patients and Other

Inmates Cox and Wayman Ltd, p.119-122

Jenkins Richard, Disability and Social Stratification, The British Journal of Sociology ,

Dec, 1991, Vol; 42, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 557- 580.

Sofi, Umar Jan, Social Exclusion of Disabled Persons in India and their Attitude Towards Society,

A study of locomotor disables of Pondicherry, (2011), pp 9-16.

Shakeel Ahmad, Asad Ullah, Mussawar Shah and Abbas Ullah Jan, (2020); Social Inclusion of

Person with Disabilities (PWDs) with Special Reference to their Financial Access to

Education, pp 1-9

Thakur Sheetal, Disability, Stigma and Social Exclusion; International Journal on Arts,

Management and Humanities 2(2): 48-51(2013)

Journals, and Articles and Census:

National Policy for Persons with Disabilities, Government of India (Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment). New Delhi, p.10-15. NCPED, Policy and Law, New Delhi, 2008, p.1,5.

Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) in India - A Statistical Profile : 2021, Ministry of Statistics
And Programme Implementation, Government of India.

Perspective- Enable the Disabled, Jan 10, 2022, Insights on INDIA; SANSAD TV.

Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill - 2016 Passed by Parliament, Ministry of Social Justice &
Empowerment, Govt. of India, Press Information Bureau.

World Report on Disability, 2011, World Health Organisation.

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ort on Disability 2011

World Report on Disability
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