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- Convenor:
-
Nidhi Singal
(University of Cambridge)
- Location:
- B202
- Start time:
- 28 July, 2012 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel will aim to engage with the varied understandings and experiences of disability in a South Asian context. It will attempt to foster a holistic approach to the study of disability that better represents and reflects the complexity of the lives of people with disabilities in South Asia.
Long Abstract:
Exclusion of disabled people and their concerns from mainstream society, policies and academic engagement has been a dominant feature in South Asia. In such a scenario, global discourses on disability have anchored themselves in the Northern context, with little acknowledgement of the lived realities -- historical, socio-cultural and economic -- of people with disabilities in South Asia. This panel provides a unique opportunity to bring together researchers working with this significant minority in South Asia. Discussions will focus on the different cultural interpretations of disability, the economics of disability, and the participation of people with disabilities in education and development.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This presentation examines the strengths and limitations of the social model for capturing the disability experience within the South Asian context and the ways in which insights on the South Asian experience of disability could inform, enrich, and expand the social model.
Paper long abstract:
The last three decades have witnessed the rise of the social model of disability in the countries of the North, particularly within the UK and the US. Emerging from an increasing disenchantment with the dominant medical model and its tendency to view disability as located within the individual, the social model identifies people with disabilities as an oppressed group and implicates society as creating disability through exclusion, isolation, and lack of provision of appropriate supports (UPIAS, 1975). Within the North, the social model has precipitated changes in policy and practice. Given the past history of the transfer of western disability constructs, theories, and practices to South Asia and given the present context of globalization, it is inevitable that the social model of disability will frame the discourse in this region. However, to what extent is this model, with its origins in the North, applicable to the cultural, economic, and political realities of the disability experience of South Asians? What promises can it offer and what are its limitations? Drawing on the findings of a prior ethnographic study conducted with families of children with disabilities in Kolkata, India, and a current study in progress being conducted with Indian American families of children with disabilities in New Jersey, this presentation examines the strengths and limitations of the model for capturing the disability experience within the South Asian context and the ways in which insights on the South Asian experience of disability could inform, enrich, and expand the social model.
Paper short abstract:
This paper argues that the legacy of colonialism and India’s current transitional status towards globalization have combined to create structural inequities concurrent with changes in child rearing practices and attitudes towards disability, resulting in a disconnect between policy and practice in perceptions of disability and the educational needs of children with disability. It also examines the implications for India as an emerging leader in the current global arena of South-South collaboration.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is based on qualitative interviews with parents and teachers of children with disabilities in India, which found that both parties alike struggled to reconcile their realities of societal discrimination and resource-strapped classrooms with the public/political rhetoric of rights and inclusive education policy. Even as the "one-size-fits all" doctrine of universal applicability proffered by international donor agencies has become entrenched in Child Friendly School policies and the goal of Education For All, the parents and teachers were aware that there was little space for including children with disabilities within the parallel structures of general and special education and the competitive environment of an educational system which discriminated against students who may not be academically successful. Further, the parents also recognized that changing social attitudes and mores in the context of globalization, with the sidelining of traditional values of interdependence and dharma or social responsibility by western values of individualism, had serious repercussions for their plans for their child's future. The paper argues that the legacy of colonialism and India's current transitional status towards globalization have combined to create structural inequities concurrent with changes in child rearing practices and attitudes towards disability, resulting in a disconnect between policy and practice in perceptions of disability and the educational needs of children with disability. It also examines the implications for India as an emerging leader in the current global arena of South-South collaboration.
Paper short abstract:
Based on five case studies, this paper highlight the complex dynamics by which, in a north Indian biomedical setting, people come to integrate different idioms and paradigms in the interpretation for their child's disability.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is based on a four months intensive fieldwork conducted in the north Indian city of Dehradun (Uttarakhand, North India) in a clinical facility which provides assessment, resources and referrals for families of children with special needs. The centre is dedicated to serving children with disabilities and development delay. The children and their families participate in a five days workshop during which they can share their experiences and acquire from the medical staff new knowledge and awareness. Focusing on five case studies, this paper will highlight the complex process by which families who participate in the workshop come to integrate different explanations, paradigms and idioms in their interpretations of disability.
Paper short abstract:
This presentation explores awareness and perspectives amongst head teachers, teachers, special educators, counsellors, parents and private specialists, about children with the disability autism in mainstream educational settings in urban India.
Paper long abstract:
Little is known about children on the autism spectrum in mainstream educational settings in India. This article explores awareness and perspectives amongst head teachers, teachers, special educators, counsellors, parents and private specialists, about children with autism in an urban school context. Using an interpretive framework, it draws on interview data from an ethnographic study conducted in the metropolitan city of Kolkata. Results indicated low awareness of autism among school staff. Teachers described a child with autism as 'different' from the peers and gave little attention to understanding autism. In turn they failed to recognize how characteristics associated with autism played a central role in the child's behaviour and academic performance. Further, there was a difference in stakeholders' view on the challenges faced by the child with autism. In contrast to parents and specialists, school staff gave little importance to social development and perceived behaviour and personality differences as inherent in the child. Nevertheless, there was a consensus among stakeholders on schools responsibility as limited to academic input. These findings are discussed in relation to assumptions underlying 'different' and beliefs about the role of school.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will seek to address the dilemmas of concept and culture in shaping disability issues and concerns in South Asian contexts. Drawing on data gathered during a qualitative study undertaken in parts of India and Pakistan, this paper will interrogate ways in which young people with disabilities understand the causes and consequences of their impairments and how they negotiate issues of stigma. Based on interviews conducted with the young people and their families it will also investigate the impact that deprivation of resources has on how disability is viewed and experienced. Findings from the study suggest evolving perceptions of disability, wherein the causes of disability are seen as being located within the scientific/medical framework alongside issues of karma etc., without any perceived dissonance. More importantly, it is also evident that people with disabilities are finding themselves enmeshed in a kind of 'surveillance society', and awareness of the benefits of having an identified and certificated disability is spreading, which is slowly changing perceptions towards 'disability', especially in poor communities.