Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the concept of social exclusion from the perspective of disability within the socio-cultural and politico-economic reality of contemporary India.

Paper long abstract:

Persons with disabilities are amongst the most disempowered groups. They have been portrayed as medical anomalies, helpless victims and a lifelong burden for family and society. Ironically, while other socially disadvantaged groups, such as women, the scheduled castes and tribes and religious minorities have been formally accepted in India as victims of historical injustice and their claims to redressal have been recognised, persons with disabilities continue to be marginalised in state policies and programmes. While India was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the social obligation and moral imperative to ameliorate the life conditions of the disabled population remain rudimentary. While the category of social exclusion in Europe has its genesis in the classification of the ailing and elderly in the context of the welfare state, these categories have been excluded in the context of India where identity politics of another kind has configured the discourse of social exclusion. This paper traces the engagement of the Indian state with the issue of disability over the past three decades as a discourse of charity and welfare gives way to one of equality and human rights. The paper explores how the politicisation of group oppression placed the disabled at the margins of the social exclusion hierarchy. Lastly, the paper underscores the need to make disability a legitimate category in the discourse of social exclusion at par with caste-based exclusion and discrimination