Contemporary Perspectives on Disability in India: Exploring the Linkages Between Law, Gender and Experience

Disabled people are more or less absent in everyday life, politics and policy, development, interventions and research in India. Political exclusion and lack of access to basic services like health and education exacerbate the deep-rooted social stigma and cultural marginalisation and devaluation of this oppressed group. the plight of women with disabilities is even worse. It is only now in an era of human rights that their legitimate concerns are being taken up at different levels by the state, civil society, the media and the academy. This process has been acelerated by India's ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities in 2007. It is the purpose of this collection of papers to present a contemporary perspective on disability from these different vantage points. It is hoped that the juxtaposition of existing laws and ongoing discussions in the judiciary, the media, the academy and the public domain (including the hither-to almost absent voices of persons with disabilities) will shed more light on the intersections between disability, law, gender, reproductive health and sexuality in the Indian context.