Thursday, 14 July 2011

Disability in India - Resources

Here are a few resources you will find helpful


Anita Ghai - A Reader in Delhi University, Dr Ghai teaches in Jesus and Mary College Delhi. I have had the pleasure of meeting her at a conference. Her work on disability in India is very moving and very raw.


Here are a few links that I have found useful.



(Dis)embodied form: issues of disabled women

 By Anita Ghai


click here



Psychology In India Volume 3: Clinical And Health Psychology

 By Misra Girishwar
click here 


Dr Ghai looks at disability in India from both a historical and current perspective. She questions the notion of disability and looks at the social construction of disability.


Disability like mental illness is socially constructed, it serves a social and political purpose. It is tied to our ideas of productivity and usefulness to society, since 'disability' is seen as a burden, the disabled individual is thought to be useless.


Disability is not biology alone but the complex creation of a social system that chooses to make disability real.


PS: I am not saying the pain a disabled person might feel isnt real, the pain is all too real, its the labels that are unreal.

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