I do see the point behind those thought provoking questions. However it is important to distinguish unity from segmentelization. While it is true that civil rights movement was a remarkable step in uniting people. But at the same time we do not have different universities for blacks and whites. Nor is it desirable since such segmentelization will undermine the very objective of the civil rights movement. So is the case here and what's the point in having an university for disabled when the number of unemployed graduates among the disabled is on the increase?
Regards, Vetri. ----- Produced in my Nokia N82. -original message- Subject: Re: [AI] Fwd: Fw: University for the Disabled, the first university of its kind From: moiz tundawala <moiztundaw...@gmail.com> Date: 09/06/2009 5:19 AM Dear Vetri and George sir, I look at it slightly differently. A university which especially caters to persons with disabilities offers a unique opportunity to get us all on a common platform. Using the rights language may not be desirable all the time, but the one big problem plaguing the disability movement over the years has been the absence of unity. We haven’t really been able to present a strong joint front and make political/economic assertions against the state and persons in positions of power and authority. I was reading somewhere about the civil rights movement in the United States. People may have had issues with segregation, but then this helped the blacks to come together and collectively make demands against the establishment. Is an inclusive society as great a virtue as presented to be? I sometimes wonder. Whom do we wish to be integrated with. Who defines what the mainstream is? Are the disabled an inferior lot in themselves? Arent our identities worth preserving? If religious and linguistic minorities can have a right to establish and administer educational institutions to preserve their language and culture, shouldn’t we be similarly be encouraging such institutions catering to the particular needs of the disabled? Oh and just for everyone’s information, the news piece also says that only 50% of the seats will be reserved for persons with disabilities. So the University is not going to be as exclusive a domain for PWDs as you think it is. These are just stray thoughts. You are free to disagree. I hope I make some sense. Regards, Moiz. -- Moiz Tundawala 5th Year, B.A./B.Sc. LLB Hons., West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, NUJS Bhavan, 12 LB, Sector III, Salt Lake City, Kolkata, 700 098 Ph: +919874396052 To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
