The extreme discrimination that India’s physically and mentally challenged suffer can be gauged from the fact that the exclusion they are subjected to is far worse than that which Dalits experience. Drawing attention to this, a World Bank study has pointed out that children with disabilities are four or five times likely to be out of school than Dalit or Adivasi children. It is well known that illiteracy and school dropout rates among Dalits and Adivasis are very high. Census and other surveys have routinely indicated that Dalits are at the bottom of the heap. The World Bank study indicates that the country’s physically and mentally challenged are worse off than them.

Education remains elusive to children with disabilities. Literacy rate among the challenged stands at a shocking 52 per cent, compared with 35 per cent among the general population. Unemployment among people with disabilities is higher than among the general population and the problem has worsened over time. And households with members that are physically or mentally challenged are significantly poorer than the average. India has around 70 million people with various kinds of physical and mental challenges. This number is likely to be much higher if we include those with disabilities that are not easily visible, such as defective hearts, for instance. The numbers that are being discriminated against then is massive.

It is a pity that India continues to view its physically and mentally challenged population as disabled rather than differently abled. Given opportunities, they are often capable of looking after themselves and  becoming productive members of society. But we are unwilling to open the doors of our schools to them or employ them in our businesses and workplaces. By refusing to educate or employ them, India is preventing them from empowering themselves.

We tend to view the physically and mentally challenged as deserving of our pity and perhaps charity.  The government has passed the Persons with Disability Act, which aims at bringing the challenged into the mainstream. But twelve years on, they remain on the margins of our society, denied their right to education, to earn and be productive citizens. The government, NGOs and the private sector need to move beyond empty platitudes to taking concrete steps towards including the challenged.