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Subject: Disabled

  • Braving the odds — parents of differently abled children in Kerala

    Why in the News

    A decade after Parliament passed the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, parents of differently abled children in Kerala continue to carry a caregiving burden the law has not eased, according to accounts gathered from families, care home organisers and rehabilitation professionals in Kozhikode. The article documents parents facing career loss, mental health strain, social stigma and, in extreme cases, deaths linked to caregiving despair, alongside gaps between the schemes that exist on paper and their reach on the ground. Officials and caregivers agree institutions and laws exist in adequate number, but say implementation and follow-up are what fail the families the law was meant to protect.

    What burden do parents of differently abled children carry, and how does it change over a lifetime?

    1. Grief is staged, not a single event: A rehabilitation expert identifies denial, anger, an attempt to escape the situation, depression and eventual acceptance as the stages every such parent passes through.
    2. The burden intensifies as the child becomes an adult: Once a child clears Class XII with assistance, parents shift to worrying about adult life, and over 20 cases of parents attempting to kill their adult children or end their own lives were recorded in Kerala in the past year alone.
    3. Mothers carry a disproportionate share: Around 34 percent of parents of girls worry specifically about their daughters’ safety in their absence, and menstrual hygiene management adds to caregiver fatigue and sleeplessness.
    4. Careers and social lives are given up: A survey of 200 parents by a private care home found at least four PhD holders and 30 postgraduates among them unable to pursue careers, most also avoiding social events.

    Why do government schemes for the differently abled fail to reach their intended beneficiaries?

    1. Reach, not availability, is the gap: A care home organiser says India has enough institutions and laws for the differently abled, but existing schemes, such as the pension for differently abled persons, are not tracked for how many eligible people actually receive them.
    2. New schemes launch without evaluating old ones: Projects are announced without follow-up or evaluation of whether earlier schemes worked, according to a care home convener who argues empowering existing schemes matters more than launching new ones.
    3. Departments work in silos: A convener calls for convergence between the Departments of Education, Health and Social Justice, starting with including the real-life problems of the differently abled in the school curriculum rather than only success stories.
    4. A parent-centric policy design has its limits: A Social Justice department official concedes the existing policy framework itself is built around parents, leaving less structured support for the child’s independent adult life.

    What alternatives are families and the government building to reduce dependence on parents?

    1. A parent collective is building independent housing: A group of parents pooled funds to build 25 houses of 800 sq. ft. each at Keezhariyur in Kozhikode, along with vocational training centres, therapy units and a health centre, so children with intellectual disabilities can live even without their parents.
    2. Respite care has been introduced in response to caregiver strain: The Kerala Social Justice department launched three ‘Anpu’ homes in August, letting differently abled persons and their parents stay up to seven days, twice in six months, so caregivers can attend to emergencies or travel.
    3. Existing government facilities remain concentrated in a few centres: Northern Kerala’s government facilities include a Regional Intervention Centre and Autism Centre at Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, and a District Early Intervention Centre at Government General Hospital, Kozhikode, but officials admit other districts lack comparable facilities.
    4. Vocational reskilling is proposed for adult independence: A former Samagra Shiksha Keralam official suggests deploying persons with intellectual disabilities in mechanical jobs after proper training, converting disability into an employable skill rather than treating it only as a welfare category.

    Challenges to disability welfare delivery in Kerala

    1. Care-giving burden has no institutional substitute: Families rely almost entirely on parents, especially mothers, for lifelong care, with no state mechanism assuming that role once parents age or die. Eg. Parents in Kerala report at least 20 cases in a year of attempting to end their own or their child’s life over anxiety about the child’s future without them. Fix. Expand community living models like the Keezhariyur collective through state co-funding, so independent living is not dependent on a single family’s ability to pool resources.
    2. Social stigma persists despite legal protection: Differently abled children are still kept away from social events such as weddings, undermining the dignity and inclusion the 2016 Act guarantees on paper. Eg. Caregivers report attempts to exclude differently abled children from family weddings in Kerala. Fix. Link disability welfare scheme disbursement to periodic community sensitisation drives conducted by the Social Justice department.
    3. Exploitative “magical cure” claims target desperate families: Parents seeking a cure for their child’s condition fall prey to unproven treatments and sell property in the process, delaying appropriate care. Eg. A rehabilitation professor in Thiruvananthapuram reports parents selling property believing false claims of a cure. Fix. Empower District Early Intervention Centres to issue verified treatment pathway certificates that families can use to screen out unproven providers.

    Conclusion

    A decade of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act has not closed the gap between the schemes that exist and the support caregivers actually receive, leaving Kerala’s parents of differently abled children to build their own alternatives, from community housing to informal support networks, while government follow-up on existing entitlements remains the piece still missing.

    Back2Basics

    1. Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016: An Act of Parliament that replaced the earlier 1995 law, recognising 21 categories of disability and mandating equal opportunity, non-discrimination and full participation for persons with disabilities.
    2. Administering ministry: The Act is implemented by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
    3. Core entitlements: It guarantees reservation in government jobs and higher education, free education for children with benchmark disabilities, and accessibility in the built environment, transport and information.
    4. National Trust: A statutory body under the Act’s parent ministry, chaired by the District Collector at the local level, mandated to support persons with autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and multiple disabilities.

    [2026] Which of the following statements with regard to the persons with disabilities in India is/are correct?

    1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, an Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2018, mandates reservation in education and employment, places a legal duty on Governments to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination.

    2. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities across three key domains – built infrastructure, transport systems and information and communication technology.

    3. The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a public sector organization set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a not-for-profit company to promote entrepreneurship among Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

    Select the answer using the code given below:

    [A] 1 and 2

    [B] 2 only

    [C] 1 and 3

    [D] 1 only

  • Counting out the disabled citizens

    Why in the News

    Census 2027’s questionnaire carries a single disability question, Question 13, which enumerates only nine categories of disability, against the 21 conditions formally recognised as disabilities under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. A count built on nine categories cannot register a person whose recognised condition falls outside those nine, which means the Census undercounts India’s disabled population by construction, not merely by survey error, and the Unique Disability ID (UDID) database that might otherwise cross-check the Census figure carries its own coverage gaps.

    What does the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 recognise, and what does the Census actually ask?

    1. 21 recognised conditions under the 2016 Act: The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (the law replacing the earlier 1995 Persons with Disabilities Act, expanding recognised disabilities from 7 to 21 categories, and mandating reservation, accessibility, and non-discrimination duties on the State) legally recognises 21 distinct categories of disability, including several, such as specific learning disabilities, acid attack survivors, and multiple sclerosis, that were not recognised under India’s earlier disability law.
    2. Census 2027’s Question 13 covers only nine categories: The Census questionnaire’s single disability question condenses the 21 legally recognised categories into just nine, meaning twelve legally recognised disabilities have no corresponding option a respondent can select.
    3. A structural undercount, not a response-rate problem: Because the missing twelve categories are absent from the question itself, a respondent living with one of them cannot be captured correctly regardless of how carefully the Census is conducted, making this a design gap rather than an implementation gap.

    Why can’t the UDID database fill this gap?

    1. UDID (Unique Disability ID) coverage depends on active registration: The UDID database only includes individuals who have actively applied for and been issued a disability certificate and identity card, so it excludes anyone with a recognised disability who has not gone through that certification process.
    2. Certification access itself is uneven: Access to the medical assessment boards that issue UDID certification varies sharply between urban and rural areas, meaning UDID’s own gaps are likely to be concentrated among the same populations the Census undercount would most affect.
    3. Two flawed instruments cannot cross-check each other reliably: A Census that undercounts by question design and a UDID database that undercounts by registration access cannot be used to validate one another, since neither offers an independent, complete count against which the other’s gap can be measured.

    What follows from an undercounted disabled population?

    1. Reservation and welfare planning rests on the undercount: Government reservation quotas in education and employment for persons with disabilities, and the targeting of disability-specific welfare schemes, are calibrated using population estimates that a structurally undercounting Census feeds into.
    2. Categories left out of Question 13 remain statistically invisible: Persons with conditions such as specific learning disabilities or multiple sclerosis, recognised under the 2016 Act but absent from the Census question, have no official population estimate to anchor policy design specific to their needs.

    Conclusion

    A Census disability question built on nine categories against a legal framework recognising 21 will undercount India’s disabled population in a way no amount of survey diligence can correct, and the UDID database’s own registration-dependent gaps mean there is no reliable instrument left to check the resulting figure against. Expanding Question 13 to match the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016’s full 21 categories before Census 2027 is administered is the specific, correctable step this gap points to.

    Disability rights in India

    1. About: Disability rights in India rest on a rights-based, rather than a purely welfare-based, framework since the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which places binding legal duties on the State to ensure accessibility, non-discrimination, and reservation, rather than treating disability support as discretionary welfare.
    2. Rationale: The shift to a rights-based approach followed India’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which required domestic law to guarantee enforceable rights rather than optional benefits.
    3. Named typology: The 2016 Act expanded recognised disability from 7 categories under the 1995 law to 21, adding categories such as acid attack survivors, Parkinson’s disease, specific learning disabilities, and multiple sclerosis that the earlier law did not recognise at all.

    Challenges in disability rights implementation

    1. Undercounting in national data systems: As Census 2027’s nine-category question shows, India’s principal demographic data instrument cannot fully register the 21 categories the law itself recognises. Eg. Specific learning disabilities and multiple sclerosis have no dedicated Census option despite legal recognition since 2016. Fix. Redesign Question 13 to map directly onto the 2016 Act’s full 21-category schedule before the Census is finalised.
    2. Accessibility mandates poorly enforced: The 2016 Act places a legal duty on government and public infrastructure to be accessible, but compliance across transport, government buildings, and digital platforms remains inconsistent. Eg. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan (Accessible India Campaign) set accessibility targets for government buildings that a large share of audited buildings have still not met. Fix. Tie a share of central grants to State governments to independently verified, building-by-building accessibility audit scores.
    3. Reservation implementation gaps in employment: The Act mandates a minimum reservation in government employment for persons with disabilities, but actual fill rates against the reserved quota lag the mandated share in most government departments. Fix. Mandate an annual, department-wise public disclosure of reservation fill rates for persons with disabilities, modelled on existing Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe reservation reporting.
    4. UDID registration barriers in rural areas: Certification for the Unique Disability ID depends on access to a medical assessment board, which is disproportionately concentrated in urban centres. Eg. A rural resident may need to travel to a district hospital multiple times to complete the certification process. Fix. Conduct periodic camp-based UDID certification drives at the block level rather than requiring travel to a fixed district facility.
    5. Weak data on economic outcomes for persons with disabilities: Beyond the population count itself, India lacks robust, regularly updated data on employment rates, income levels, and educational attainment specifically among persons with disabilities. Fix. Add disability status as a standard disaggregation category in the Periodic Labour Force Survey, alongside the existing gender and social-category breakdowns.

    Back2Basics: Unique Disability ID (UDID)

    1. A national database and identity card system issued to persons with disabilities upon certification by a designated medical assessment board.
    2. Intended to serve as a single, portable proof of disability accepted across government schemes, replacing the need for repeated, State-specific certification.
    3. Coverage depends on individuals actively applying for and completing certification, so it does not capture persons with disabilities who have not gone through that process.
    4. Administered under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026] Which of the following statements with regard to the persons with disabilities in India is/are
    correct?
    1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, an Act passed by the Parliament of India in
    2018, mandates reservation in education and employment, places a legal duty on
    Governments to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination.
    2. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with
    Disabilities across three key domains — built infrastructure, transport systems and
    information and communication technology.
    3. The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a public
    sector organisation set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a not-for-profit company to
    promote entrepreneurship among Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
    Select the answer using the code given below:
    (a) 1 and 2
    (b) 2 only
    (c) 1 and 3
    (d) 1 only
    ANSWER: B”

  • Census 2027: rights groups flag gaps in disability categories

    Why in the News

    Disability rights organisations have objected to the nine category disability question proposed for Census 2027, against the 21 specified disabilities recognised in law. The objection turns on a design choice, since the categories printed on the schedule decide which conditions can be counted at all, and a condition without its own box is recorded inside a broader one or not at all.

    What does Census 2027 propose to record on disability?

    1. The nine proposed categories: Seeing, hearing, speech, mobility, intellectual disability, mental illness, disability due to acid attack, disability due to chronic neurological disease, and blood disorder.
    2. What carries over from 2011: Six of the nine, namely seeing, hearing, speech, mobility, intellectual disability and mental illness, are the 2011 Census categories, with “mental retardation” renamed “intellectual disability”.
    3. What is new: Acid attack, chronic neurological disease and blood disorder are the three additions over the 2011 schedule.
    4. Multiple disability recording: The questionnaire allows up to three disabilities to be recorded for one person, entered in the order of severity.

    What are “specified disabilities” under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016?

    1. The statutory list: The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 recognises 21 specified disabilities in its Schedule, covering physical, intellectual, mental, blood related and multiple disabilities.
    2. The expansion it made: The Act replaced the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 and raised the recognised types from seven to 21, treating disability as a dynamic and evolving concept.

    Why do rights groups say the nine categories fall short?

    1. The assurance on record: The Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment stated in March 2026 that Census 2027 would capture data on all 21 disabilities.
    2. Conditions without a distinct box: Autism spectrum disorder, specific learning disabilities, dwarfism, leprosy cured persons and multiple disabilities including deafblindness are not distinctly placed under any proposed category.
    3. Distinct conditions collapsed into one: Thalassemia, haemophilia and sickle cell disease are reduced to the single category “blood disorder”, which erases the difference between three separate conditions with different prevalence and support needs.
    4. Other statutory conditions absent: Cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis are recognised in the Act but not separately represented in the proposed schedule.
    5. Scale of the objection: The statement of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD), citing information from the Politics and Disability Forum, was endorsed by more than 400 signatories.

    What is the Registrar General’s defence of the design?

    1. Broad categories by design: The nine are described as broader categories that include other detailed specific disabilities within them.
    2. Severity ordering retained: The option to record up to three disabilities in order of severity is offered as the mechanism for capturing multiple disability.
    3. Consultation claimed: Categories were finalised after consultation with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and other stakeholders.
    4. Enumerator competence: Field functionaries are not technically qualified to assess or confirm a specific disability, which is the stated reason for keeping categories broad.
    5. Training provided: A three day training covering all aspects of the questionnaire is held for enumerators and supervisors.
    6. Comparison with 2011: The 2027 schedule enumerates a larger number of disabilities than the 2011 schedule did.

    Why does the classification itself decide the count?

    1. The instrument sets the ceiling: An enumerator can only record what the schedule offers, so a condition without a category is absorbed into a broader one and disappears from the published table.
    2. Untrained recognition: Broad categories without a notified training module on which specific disability sits under which head leave the classification to the enumerator’s judgement.
    3. The respondent’s own knowledge: A person who neither communicates nor understands the correct name of their disability cannot correct a wrong entry, which compounds the error.
    4. Self declaration and stigma: Census disability data is self reported, and households under reported disability in earlier rounds because of stigma, which a broad category does nothing to correct.
    5. Downstream consequence: Undercounting a specific group weakens the evidence base for scheme design, budget allocation and reservation entitlements tied to that disability.

    What did the 2011 Census record on disability?

    1. Total count: The 2011 Census counted 2.68 crore persons with disabilities, which was 2.21 percent of the country’s population.
    2. Categories used: The 2011 schedule carried six of the nine categories now proposed.
    3. Concentration of the count: Movement or locomotor, hearing and vision related disabilities together accounted for over half of the country’s population with disabilities.
    4. What the 2011 base implies: A count already limited to six categories in 2011 sets the comparison base against which any 2027 increase will be read.

    Challenges to accurate disability enumeration

    1. Self reporting and stigma: Households conceal disability, particularly mental illness and intellectual disability, to avoid social consequences for marriage and employment. e.g. the 2011 Census figure of 2.21 percent sits well below global disability prevalence estimates of around 15 percent of population.
    2. Untrained enumerators on clinical categories: A three day training cannot equip a field functionary to distinguish autism spectrum disorder from intellectual disability. e.g. specific learning disabilities are invisible without assessment and were absent from the 2011 count entirely.
    3. Severity capping at three: Persons with more than three conditions lose the rest of their profile, which particularly affects multiple disability. e.g. deafblindness combines two sensory disabilities and has no distinct category in the proposed schedule.
    4. No linkage to certification data: Census figures are not reconciled with the Unique Disability ID database, so the two official counts diverge. e.g. UDID certification is issued against the 21 statutory categories while the Census will record nine.
    5. Question placement and time: The disability question sits late in a long household schedule, where fatigue produces default negative answers. e.g. the 2027 self enumeration form is completed by the respondent without any enumerator prompt at all.
    6. Definitional change across rounds: Renaming and regrouping categories between censuses breaks comparability of the time series. e.g. “mental retardation” in 2011 becomes “intellectual disability” in 2027, and three blood conditions are merged into one new head.

    Conclusion

    The dispute is not about whether Census 2027 counts persons with disabilities but about whether its nine category schedule can carry the 21 categories the law recognises. The Registrar General’s position is that the nine are containers holding the specific conditions, and the rights groups’ position is that a container without a notified mapping and enumerator training will not produce disaggregated data. The self enumeration window for snowbound areas is open until 31 August 2026, with the second phase of population enumeration in those areas from 1 to 30 September 2026 and a revisional round from 1 to 5 October 2026. Any change to the disability question must therefore be made before the main enumeration schedule is frozen.

    “[2026] Which of the following statements with regard to the persons with disabilities in India is/are correct?

    1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, an Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2018, mandates reservation in education and employment, places a legal duty on Governments to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination.

    2. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities across three key domains, built infrastructure, transport systems and information and communication technology.

    3. The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a public sector organisation set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a not-for-profit company to promote entrepreneurship among Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

    (a) 1 and 2

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1 and 3

    (d) 1 only

  • A medical education more inclusive

    Why in the News

    The National Medical Commission (NMC) issued revised guidelines on 27 July 2026 for admitting persons with disabilities to MBBS courses, replacing certificate-based disqualification with a functional assessment of whether a candidate can acquire the competencies needed to practise medicine. The change follows repeated legal challenges, including before the Supreme Court, to the earlier guidelines’ blanket exclusions.

    Key Highlights

    • Shift to Functional Assessment
      • MBBS eligibility will now be based on an applicant’s functional ability rather than the disability certificate alone.
      • Assessment will determine whether the candidate can acquire the competencies required to practise medicine.
      • Designated medical boards will conduct individual functional assessments.
    • Recognition of Reasonable Accommodation
      • Disability itself is not a ground for disqualification.
      • The guidelines recognise that: Assistive technology. Institutional support. Accessible infrastructure can enable candidates to successfully complete medical education.

    Why Were the Earlier Guidelines Challenged?

    • Earlier guidelines relied on fixed disability categories and thresholds.
    • Candidates could be declared ineligible solely because of the nature or extent of disability.
    • Petitioners argued that such blanket exclusions violated the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.
    • The Supreme Court observed that systemic discrimination against persons with benchmark disabilities should be eliminated.

    Significance

    • Promotes inclusive medical education.
    • Aligns with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.
    • Shifts from a disability-based to a competency-based admission framework.

    Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016

    • Replaced the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.
    • Expanded recognised disabilities from 7 to 21.
    • Provides 4% reservation in government jobs and 5% reservation in higher educational institutions for persons with benchmark disabilities.
    • Administered by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

    National Medical Commission (NMC)

    • Established under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019.
    • Replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI).
    • Regulates medical education and medical professionals in India.

    [2026] Which of the following statements with regard to the persons with disabilities in India is/are correct?
    1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, an Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2018, mandates reservation in education and employment, places a legal duty on Governments to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination.
    2. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities across three key domains – built infrastructure, transport systems and information and communication technology.
    3. The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a public sector organization set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a not-for-profit company to promote entrepreneurship among Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
    Select the answer using the code given below:

    [A] 1 and 2

    [B] 2 only

    [C] 1 and 3

    [D] 1 only

  • Does the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 ensure effective mechanism for empowerment and inclusion of the intended beneficiaries in the society? Discuss

  • The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 remains only a legal document without intense sensitisation of government functionaries and citizens regarding disability. Comment.

    The RPwD Act, 2016 was enacted to align India’s legal framework with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to promote equality, ensure dignity, and protect rights of PwDs.

    Key Features of the RPwD Act, 2016

    Expanded definition: Disability categories increased from 7 to 21, including autism, thalassemia, acid attack survivors, etc.

    Reservation: 4% in government jobs and 5% in higher education for PwDs.

    Accessibility: Mandates barrier-free public infrastructure, ICT accessibility, and universal design.

    Institutional Framework: Establishment of Central and State Advisory Boards, Chief Commissioner and State Commissioners for PwDs.

    Legal Protection: Punishment for discrimination, and provision of special courts to handle disability-related matters.

    Major Issues Hindering Effective Implementation

    Bureaucratic Issues

    Poor Institutional Implementation- As per Department of Empowerment of PwDs, only 23 of 35 States/UTs had constituted State Advisory Boards.

    Inaccessible Infrastructure- Under Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat), only 3% of government buildings were made fully accessible by 2024.

    Tokenistic Compliance- Disability cells in ministries lack funds and trained staff.

    Delay in appointing state commissioners and lack of special courts restrict legal recourse for PwDs.

    Fragmented Coordination- Overlap between ministries (Social Justice, Urban Affairs, HRD) causes slow execution of inclusive programs.

    Citizen Awareness and Social Sensitisation Issues

    Social Stigma and Prejudice- PwDs continue to face exclusion, pity narratives, and stereotypes in media and public life.

    Lack of Awareness Among Citizens and Local Institutions- Rural households and PRIs remain unaware of provisions such as disability certificates or reservation rights.

    Educational Exclusion- Despite RTE inclusion, schools lack special educators and assistive devices; enrolment gaps persist.

    Digital Divide and Communication Barriers- Most government websites and platforms fail web accessibility compliance standards (WCAG).

    Media Misrepresentation- Stereotyping of PwDs continues despite Supreme Court directives (2024) against derogatory portrayals in films and media.

    Way Forward

    Sensitisation – Conduct mandatory disability awareness training for civil servants, teachers, and health workers.

    Grassroots Awareness Campaigns: Use community radio, local NGOs, and ASHA/Aanganwadi networks.

    Institutional Strengthening: Fully operationalize State Advisory Boards, ensure adequate funding and monitoring.

    Accessibility Revolution: Enforce Sugamya Bharat milestones with real-time audits.

    True inclusion demands a “whole-of-society” approach-one that blends policy, participation, and perception change to realise the vision of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas.”