Disability and Education in India

Unit 2

WHO WOULD YOU BE WITHOUT YOUR EDUCATION?

 Of the total disabled population, nearly 55% (1.46 Cr.) are literates.

National Literacy
rate is 74.04%
Among the
82.14% for males males, 62% are Among the
65.46% for literate females, 45% are
females. literate

DOUBLE DISADV.
• 61% of the disabled children aged 5-19 years are attending
educational institution.

• School attendance is higher in urban

(65%) than rural areas (60%).

HIGHER EDUCATION:
• In urban areas, among the disabled who
are literate, 15% are graduates.

• In rural areas only 5% are graduates.

National policies and programs on Education

Kothari Commission Report - 1960s

PWD ACT 1995 (speaks on education)

National Policy on Education (1968)

Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (2001-2002)
Integrated Education for Disabled
Right to Education Act, 2009 Children IEDC (1974)

RPWD ACT 2016 (speaks on education) National Policy on Education (1986)

which was revised in 1992
NEP 2020
Kothari Commission Report

• Commission set up by Govt of India.

• Aim- To EXAMINE all aspects of the EDUCATIONAL SECTOR & recommend guidelines for the
development of education.

• Chairmanship- Daulat Singh Kothari, chairman of the UGC.

• Report submitted on 29th June 1966.

Reasonable target: By 1986, education for about-

• 15% of the blind, deaf and orthopaedically handicapped children
• 5% of the mentally retarded ones.
Kothari commission

• Their education has to be organized not merely on humanitarian grounds but also on grounds of utility.

• Proper education generally enables a handicapped child to overcome the handicap, and makes him
also a useful citizen.

• Social justice also demands it (as per the Constitution)

• Very little has been done so far.....

 Kothari Commission

• In the educationally advanced countries, stress is being laid on integration.

Advantages: Disadvantages: National Policy on

(i) Reduction of costs Education (1968)
Many handicapped children
(ii) promoting understanding find it psychologically Integrated Education
b/w handicapped and non- disturbing in an ordinary for Disabled Children
handicapped children. school. IEDC (1974)

• Overall we feel that experimentation with integrated programmes is urgently

required.
PWD ACT 1995 • Significant step in the direction to ensure equal
opportunities for people with disabilities and their

• Promote the integration of students with

disabilities in the normal schools

• Promote setting up of special schools - Special

schools are mentioned 4 times in the report

• ‘Inclusion’ is not mentioned at all

 Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan

• Launched in 2001-2002 in partnership with the State Govts.

• AIM: To provide useful elementary education to ALL children (6 to 14 age yrs) by 2010.

I. Increase enrolment/retention of all children

II.Improving the quality of education
III. Address gender and social category gaps at elementary education.
Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan

CWSN have often been marginalized on

• Considerable emphasis on INCLUSIVE account of-
EDUCATION, (ALL children in school, learning
together) Lack of awareness on the part of the
community about their potential.

• SSA objectives can only be met by including Societal attitude of sympathy focusing
CWSN more on what they cannot do than on
what they can do.

Apprehensions on the part of the

teachers to teach such children
SSA

• SSA has adopted a zero rejection policy- no child having special needs
should be deprived of the right to education.

• The SSA in line with the PWD Act, 1995 provides that a child with
special needs should be taught in an environment, best suited to his/her
learning needs.

• Home-based education to those children who have severe disabilities.

 RTE, 2009

• Enacted on 4 August 2009.

• Made education a fundamental right of Under the RTE Act, 25% seats in schools
every child. are reserved for EWS. Within this 3% are
reserved for children with disabilities.
• Free & compulsory education for children
(6-14 years).
Parents of children with disabilities will
• For persons with disability, up to 18 years. now have to be included in all school
management committees (SMCs)
• First legislation in the world that puts the
responsibility of providing education on the
govt.
 Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016

Defines inclusive education as:

‘A system of education wherein students with & without disabilities learn together
and….the system of teaching & learning is suitably adapted to meet the learning needs
of different types of students with disabilities’.
Key ingredients of an inclusive education system.

• Students go to the same school they would have attended if they did not have a disability.

• Students are educated alongside their non-disabled peers & receive the supports they need to learn.

• School culture values diversity.

• Teachers are trained & supported to individualize their teaching.

• Schools have access to resources to support inclusion.

Key provisions for schools- RPWD Act, 2016

• Make building, campus etc accessible;

• Provide reasonable accommodation according to the individual's requirements
• provide books & assistive devices to students with benchmark disabilities free of cost up to the age
of eighteen years
After years of policy development, what is
the ground reality?
Almost No Compliance of RTE: Lack of Infrastructure, Awareness Keeps Children With
Disabilities Out of Schools
By: Ridhima Gupta, AUGUST 09, 2022

• Akhilesh Tiwari, father of 9-year-old Atharv, a child CP, has been trying for
the last 5 years to enroll him in a mainstream school in Mumbai.

• But this has not happened- While Atharv should be in Class 4, his mother
tutors him at home.

• His father had approached St. Joseph School a govt.-aided institution. “I

urged the school principal Father Sachin Lopez multiple times to enroll
Atharv but he did not agree and cited numerous reasons.” Atharv
The principal allegedly first asked the parents to to accompany Atharv to
school.

“When my wife agreed to take up the responsibility, the school said that a helper will lead
to other students ostracising Atharv. They then discouraged us from enrolling him in the
school,” the father alleged.

• The school principal claimed admission may be denied due to lack of vacancies- “We can’t
promise admission to any child, their parents should try every year,”
• He further denied sharing the no. of children with disabilities enrolled at his school.

• Activists claim that schools deny admissions to CWDs as the schools do not have basic
accessibility infrastructure- ramps, toilets, special educators for CWDs in schools.
Madras High Court comes down heavily on private school for not admitting child
with special needs
R Sivakumar, 23 Feb 2023

CHENNAI: After several schools denied admission citing a lack of

special educators, the MOTHER of a child with AUTISM approached
a missionary school for admission.

• After a & with the child, the school

refused admission saying that it had NO SPECIAL EDUCATORS.

• The mother stated that the school website had sported claims of
having special teachers.

• The mother appealed to the Madras High Court.

• The judge said the school is ironically named after a missionary who lived in the late 19th
cent. & ...

• dedicated her life to assuaging the plight of Indian women + helping those afflicted with
‘bubonic plague, cholera, leprosy. ’

• The Court noted that during court proceedings the School offered to provide admission
to the child, as well as, appoint special educators.

• The Court left the matter to the , & noted that the State Govt.
had helped the mother in identifying 3 schools for admission.

• The Court asked the mother of the petitioner to make the final choice b/w the options.
BARRIERS TO INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

In spite of a vision backed by policy, children with

disabilities are marginalized in education.

Barriers:
1. Attitudes (parents and teachers)

2. Lack of accessibility (physical spaces, aids,

technology)

N FOR NOSE
3. Inadequacy of educational & human resources. State of the Education
Report for India 2019
Children with Disabilities
Published by UNESCO
 1. Attitudes (parents and
teachers)
By and large schools were exclusionary.
- Lip service by teachers regarding inclusion.
- Exclusion by peers I feel like I had to prove that I am not dumb, I am
- Experiences of bullying smart - that’s why I used to study a lot, especially in
- Few instances of genuine friendships 12th. They assumed that my scribe used to write my
paper - I had to prove that I was smart.
College was more inclusive.
- More sensitivity They didn’t put me in their photos because of my
- Opportunities for making like-minded friends. eye squint, don’t sit with us, don’t play with us.
Opportunities for achieving sense of
accomplishment (for eg, participation in the
college’s equal opportunities cell).
 College - people are much better, online friends, one school friend . Earlier, I used to run
away from the fact that I had a disability, as I have a lot of bad memories. When we did
this PoD paper, last semester… when I did this presentation…
(I realised) it is not such a bad thing, I have to accept
who I am.
P.
Inadequacy of educational & human resources.

January 28, 2024

GAUTHAMI K.S
Access to Aids and Appliances

• There has been wide-scale production & distribution, but various issues persist.

• Availability of aids, & Some parents find that

Limited awareness about
rehab. services is the design of the aids
programs for free aids and
concentrated in urban provided do not help their
appliances.
areas. child.

• Many aids distributed by the govt./NGOs in camps etc. are abandoned as they are not suitable/ of low quality. There is
no system to suitably customize the device.

• Delays in providing aids to children due to administrative hurdles.

• Only about 1/4th of beneficiaries are female.

• Assistive aids are taxed at 5% under GST. (it was tax-free previously)
Assistive technologies

Quality: of
sufficient quality
Affordability:
available at a
Adaptability: to cost the user can
meet each afford
Acceptability: individual’s
Appropriate, needs
Accessibility: useful to those
Those who need who need it
Availability: in it know about it
sufficient and are able to
quantity. access it
 Large disparities:

NEP, 2020 v Gender (female & transgender)

v Socio-cultural (SC, ST , OBC , minorities)

v Geographical (villages, small towns)

v Disabilities (including LD)

v Socio-Eco. conditions (like migrant

communities, victims of trafficking)
No child should lose any opportunity to
learn due to birth or background.
Divyang- 'one with a divine body part'

Mechanisms for providing CWSN or Divyang,

Viklang- 1.अंगसे हीन।
the same opportunities for quality
education as any other child.
2. बेकाम अंगवाला।
NEP 2020

This Policy is in complete consonance with the provisions of the

RPWD Act 2016

Awareness of how to teach

Schools will be supported
children with specific
to provide all CWD Assistive devices & disabilities as part of all
accommodations. technology-based tools. teacher training programs
NEP 2020
What is also required is a change in school culture.

All participants in the school system will be

sensitized to notions of inclusion, respect, dignity,
privacy of all persons.
The school curriculum will include values such as
empathy, tolerance, human rights, gender
equality, non-violence.

Any biases & stereotypes in school curriculum will

be removed.