December 3 has been annually observed as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by the UN since 1992.
The theme for this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is "United in action to rescue and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with and by persons with disabilities".
Chennai-based T M N Deepak is a “disability political activist” and the founder of the December 3 Movement, a 10,000-member strong disability rights association spread across Tamil Nadu. He has a physical disability owing to a polio attack at the age of two.
His brainchild, the December 3 Movement, is named after the date annually observed as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) by the United Nations since 1992.
“We wanted to name it December 3 to highlight that it is not a day
for tokenist celebrations in our honour but one that demands recognition of us
as a community with rights in the society,” Deepak said.
“It cannot be a day for tick box exercises and tokenistic ‘charity’ programmes. It is to acknowledge how much we moved or how far we are from the milestone,” he added.
Since its inception in January 2015, the disability rights association has advocated for diversity in disability to be made inclusive. “The literal English translation of unamutravar, the Tamil word for those with disabilities, is ‘alternately abled’. Yes, we are alternately abled and the human experience of disability needs inclusion,” he added.
The theme for this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “United in action to rescue and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with and by persons with disabilities”.
The 17 SDGs under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in September 2015 explicitly include the terms ‘disability’ and ‘persons with disabilities’ (PwDs) 11 times, as per the UN.
“The Agenda aims for a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development for all. We are very much part of the ‘all’. The theme mentions ‘for, with and by’ making inclusion not only a moral imperative, but a practical necessity in India,” Deepak said, highlighting the country’s 2.68 crore people with disabilities (as per the Census 2011).
About 2.2 per cent of India’s population lives with some physical or mental disability, as per the National Statistics Office report on disability released in 2019.
The UN, in its preliminary findings from the UN Disability and
Development Report 2023, states that the world is “even more off track in
meeting several SDGs for persons with disabilities.”
He said this year’s SDGs-related theme makes it much clearer, considering 2023 is the halfway mark to the 2030 Agenda. “Anything that has to be sustainable has to get the sanctions of all the communities. That is only possible when stakeholders ensure we are seen and heard.”
The SDGs are built on the principle of “leaving no one behind.” Delhi-based disability rights activist Arman Ali said this directly translates to rescuing the goals through the means of representation, especially when it is about a community that has been historically marginalised.
The importance of creating disability rights awareness is felt today across the board, starting from areas of governance and administration. “We have been undercounting disability and persons with disability remain underrepresented. We are still behind in adopting a holistic approach that addresses challenges and offers solutions to problems faced by the disabled community in India,” said Ali, also the executive director of National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP).
Identification and convergence: In spirit, policy and action
With a disability-oriented focus on sustainable human development,
the president of the Hyderabad-based Network of Persons with Disability
Organizations (NPdO), Srinivasulu, who was born with a disability, said
policies are not where problems begin. “It’s all on paper, but the
implementation is the issue. The fight is for us to be able to live with our
rights, with dignity,” he said.
Talking about accessibility, he said without an inclusive approach to collect data on disability in India, social welfare for all cannot be achieved. “Say the state and the central government are making arrangements such as ramps and lifts for me to go vote. But if they don’t start by identifying me, other factors will not align for me to reach the polling booth. This includes basics like public transport to larger factors like education,” he cited from lived experience.
Further, he mentioned that such systemic barriers can be overcome with the ‘convergence’ method wherein all sectors of society come together to support disability rights by focussing on the implementation aspects of problem-solving. “In India, where there is political will there is empowerment,” he added.
His network, like many other disability rights pressure groups across the country, continues to fight for better representation in local self-governments. Deepak’s December 3 Movement also stands by this. “Talking rights is politics,” he said, repeating his “call to action in life” and Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin’s quote: “If you do not talk about your politics, you will be ruled by the politics that you hate.”
Education: Beyond the ableist rubric
Education, when made accessible with a clear roadmap and
milestones, leads to upliftment and empowerment, said Jayashree LV, a special
educator and director of The Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu. “Entry point could be education.
But what after that? What is available and accessible to the community in terms
of livelihoods and lifestyle?” she asked.
Extending the education perspective, Jayashree underscored the ableist discourse in India. ”When we talk in terms of sustainable development, the whole society which has an unconscious bias must be educated about the internalised ableism thinking,” she said, reiterating that the only way forward is to take the purposeful integration of disability inclusion one notch higher each year.
Deepak said he addresses everyone around him as “Tōḻar” (comrade in Tamil) as in, an “ally”. In line with sustainable development, here’s what experts and people with lived experiences believe those who consider themselves disability allies can do:
📌 Do not approach with a “charity mindset”. Treat persons with disabilities as equals with dignity and consider the intersectionality across caste, class and gender.
📌 “Pass
the mic,” Deepak added. With the right intent, let the voices speak for
themselves.
📌 Demand
both public and private stakeholders to put “money where the mouth is,”
Jayashree said.
📌 Look
for the disability focus in development initiatives and call out tokenism. “Ask
for achievable action plans. It could even be your own housing society or your
constituency,” Srinivasulu said.
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