Getting grounded on the disability issue
Disabled activists being humiliated on domestic flights make headline news. But the daily travails of the disabled who attempt to travel by bus, rail or tram never get any attention. Isn't it more important to ensure that the poor and disabled are brought into the arena of rights, asks Shampa Sengupta
India needs new legislation on Disability Rights
The government has proposed 108 amendments to the Persons with Disabilities Act, the overarching disability legislation in India. Disabled rights groups are demanding a new law instead that would guarantee civil and political rights to disabled people and expand the definition of disability
The women's movement must do more for disabled women
Disabled women are crowded out in both the disability movement and the women’s movement, says Anita Ghai. Feminists, she says, have failed to recognise the different experiences of disabled women in a sexist and able society
No rights for the mentally disabled
At a Kolkata mental hospital recently female patients were found left stark naked in the ward. Mental illness is included in the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, but the mentally disabled are denied even the rights and reservations available to the physically disabled