Abstract
Nilika Mehrotra’s book is a well-documented account of a range of issues around disability, gender and caste in the context of India. It highlights these dimensions as multiple marginalities in recent globalising times. Using an intersectional approach, Mehrotra argues that caste, gender and disability implicate and impact the access and opportunities available to persons that account for the marginalities. Mehrotra emphasises that social and cultural frames on the one hand and the economic frame on the other set the context within which a person with low caste status, disability and of the female gender, is likely to suffer the most.
The nine chapters of the book comprise Mehrotra’s research papers and articles written over a decade of her work in the field of disability. The author has explored different issues concerned with disability in each chapter. Beginning the book with the debate around the definition of disability, the author has traced the predominance of the charity and medical model in defining disability to changes following increased awareness about the social and rights-based approach to disability. The author takes note of the role of the state and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as agents of intervention and traces the development and role of the Disability Rights Movements (DRM) in India in making the changes possible. According to Mehrotra, NGOs have been able to help mainly in the rehabilitation and service delivery aspects for people with disability rather than in making structural changes that the state might be expected to initiate. The counting of persons with disability in the census and National Sample Survey, which is a basic human right for any citizen of a country, is attributed to the awareness campaigns spearheaded by the DRM.
The author has attempted to highlight the different dimensions of being a woman and that too disabled. She also examines the problems arising of the intersection of multiple identities—of being a woman, disabled and belonging to a low caste, for example. While addressing each of the areas, the author has substantiated and linked key issues with her fieldwork in Haryana, adding to the strength of the book.
The book is made accessible to a lay audience through a number of examples and case studies that help relate to the issues the author is discussing. Because the book is a collection of previously published papers, the case studies are sometimes repeated, but the author argues that this is intended to bring back the reader to the cases so that they can understand the multiple contexts relating to the issue of disability in India.
An important issue in India is the complex interplay between the concepts of intellectual disability, gender and personhood. Intellectual disability and mental health are two issues that are much misunderstood in the Indian context and are often categorised as mental conditions to be feared. With the help of socio-historical and cross-cultural variability along with its linkages to class, urbanisation and modernisation, the author reveals how families and persons with mental disability, especially women with disability, negotiate the social compulsions for ‘normalcy’ and competent adulthood in contrast to those with physical disability.
Throughout the book, the author has emphasised the proposition that disability is culturally constituted, socially negotiated and gendered. She argues that while disability does not in itself discriminate between caste, class and gender, the cultural values, the social structure and the availability of resources do impact the management of disability. For example, limb disability in rural Haryana which has intensive agriculture with high labour requirements is high among Jats on the one hand and Harijans on the other. As the Jats are relatively prosperous, they buy fodder-cutting machines used mainly by women who also meet with accidents using them (p. 163). Another point she makes is that in an agricultural society, ‘intellectual’ disability is absorbed fairly easily by society and there is a need for intensive labour and all working bodies can be included within the system. Through the use of case studies, especially in chapter 6, the author describes sensitively the strategies for supporting persons with disability, especially women with disability, used by families in negotiating family, work and society.
The book will be useful for students and researchers working in the area of disability related issues. While noting that the debates on the issue of disability largely refer to the western context and western models, an attempt is made by the author to conceptualise disability in the South Asian context. In sum, the book concisely brings together the fundamental understanding about disability issues for first time readers wanting to understand the disability scenario in South Asia, especially India.