thank you very much Avinash,
where can we get the original book?
Umesha
----- Original Message -----
From: "avinash shahi" <shahi88avin...@gmail.com>
To: "jnuvision" <jnuvis...@yahoogroups.com>; "accessindia"
<accessindia@accessindia.org.in>
Sent: Thursday, 14 November, 2013 7:50 PM
Subject: [AI] Fwd: EPW Book Review: New Insights into Disability Studies
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: avinash shahi <shahi88avin...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 19:46:26 +0530
Subject: {Disability Studies India} EPW Book Review: New Insights into
Disability Studies
To: disability-studies-india <disability-studies-in...@googlegroups.com>
Pasting the entire piece because many readers who don't have
subscription to EPW will not be able to read URL till Upcoming
Saturday...
And Since many contributors to the book are members on Disability
Studies Googlegroups, I'm eager to listen their reactions on this
review.
Hope to hear from experienced mentors vibrant discussion
http://www.epw.in/book-reviews/new-insights-disability-studies.html
Economic And Political Weekly, Vol - XLVIII No. 47, November 23, 2013 |
Disability Studies in India: Global Discourses, Local Realities edited
by Renu Addlakha (New Delhi:Routledge Taylor and Francis Group
Publications), 2013; pp 464, Rs 895.
K Pavani Sree (pavanisre...@gmail.com) is a research scholar,
Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad.
Disability as a universal phenomenon has been defined in a number of
ways. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has explained the concept of
disability under three broad categories, namely, “Impairment,
Disability and Handicap”. Social scientists in recent decades have
highlighted the socio-historical and cultural dimensions of
disability. The medical model of disability stresses the fact that
impaired bodies need to adjust, adapt and undergo corrections to
overcome lack or absence, which is essential in most cases. The shift
from the medical model to the social model of impairment is due to
perception through the sociocultural and structural context. This has
led to disability studies problematising the sociocultural
construction of disability and opening up the space to criticise the
medical model. The studies have shifted from lack to social barriers.
The social model explains the social, structural and built environment
barriers of physically impaired people.
Researchers in the social sciences and humanities have developed
disability as an interdisciplinary category by forming a new
methodological and analytical tool. The book under review has focused
on the issues of persons with disabilities through an empirical
examination of the contemporary context particularly of the Indian
scenario. It also highlights the critical interpretations of
impairments in narratives to throw light on evolving notions on
impairment.
The book consists of 17 papers and is divided into five sections. Ten
papers focus on the gender dimension of disability and seven give new
insights into the emerging field of disability studies. The book
covers almost all areas of disability ranging from historcising
disability in India, the disability rights movement, need for caring,
notions of gender, identity construction and formation, inclusion and
participation of persons with disabilities. The book deals with the
issues at both the micro and macro levels. It interprets a wide range
of impairments including visual, auditory mental illness and locomotor
disability. Jose Abad Lorente and Partho Bhowmick write on “Body/Text:
Art Project on Deafness and Communication” and “Blind with Camera:
Photographs by the Visually Impaired” highlighting disability
aesthetics and creative diversity regarding the deaf and blind. They
show how the disabled are using the latest technology and developing
skills on par with the able-bodied. The papers in this volume provide
a comprehensive understanding of where to place discourses on
disabilities in the Indian context. As Mehrotra and Shubhangi Vaidya
point out unlike the practices of labelling, segregation and
institutionalisation observed in the west, the sociocultural milieu in
non-western societies, including India, have historically tended to
absorb persons with disabilities within the circle of family and
social networks, creating spaces for them to function according to
their capabilities. They also highlight the fact that Indians seem to
pay less attention to mental illnesses than to physical illnesses. One
can relate this statement to Erving Goffman’s concept of discredited
persons who have a physical impairment, i e, have a visible stigma and
discredited persons with a non-visible impairment. In other words, it
is about mental illness. From the above it is evident that
particularly in India disability is defined in terms of dependency and
is understood primarily as a physical defect.
Gender Dimension
Coming to the notion of the gender dimension of disability, Nandini
Ghosh, Renu Addlakha, Michel Friender and Sandhya Limaye reveal how
women with disabilities are often subjected to multiple
discriminations due to the patriarchal notions on sexuality which
consider them incapable of taking on sexual, reproductive and maternal
roles. Friender in her findings on identity formation and
transnational discourses concludes that culture plays a crucial role
in the construction of self-hood and identity. This essay also
explores how culture and gender modify the experiences and
articulations of deaf identity in a non-western setting.
Asha Hans, Amrita Patel and S B Agnihotri explore gender budgeting,
which is an emerging concept and use it to analyse allocations and
expenditure in the disability sector, in four states in India. By
highlighting the total absence of gender sensitivity in budgetary
allocations in the disability sector, these authors alert us to the
multiple layers of exclusion within the category of disability in its
intersections with other socio-demographic variables such as gender,
caste, class and religion.
Burden of Caregiving
Similarly, Upali Chakravarti explores the burden of caring and finds
that families shoulder a greater responsibility in caregiving,
especially the mother. Chakravarti contends that families require not
only material resources, but also continual psychological support.
Highlighting the sacrifices made by the parents in bringing up
children with cerebral palsy Chakravarti brings out the lived
experiences of parents with disabled children. Amit Upadhyay brings an
important dimension to disability through narratives of
orthopaedically impaired persons engaged in gainful employment. He
highlights the difficulties faced by orthopaedically handicapped
persons both at the workplace and in getting jobs. Upadhyay also
discusses the difficulties faced by them in negotiating the built
environment at the workplace and the need for further research in this
area.
This volume also focuses on policies and disability rights. N
Sundaresan says that there is an urgent need to mainstream disability
in the Millennium Development Goals.
The volume emphasises the disability of deaf people, for instance,
Sandhya Limaye presents detailed case studies of hearing impaired
adolescent girls in Mumbai. According to her, “adolescence is one of
the critical developmental stages of life cycle involving a distinct
set of tasks, which include awareness and acceptance of the changing
body, development of peer relationships, internalisation of gender
role expectations and development of a
personal identity, in addition to exercising autonomy, training for
acquiring work for economic independence and entering marriage and
family life” (Addlakha 2013: 264). Other attempts to understand
various forms of disabilities are needed.
Science and Technology Ignored
However, the book does not consider the role of science and technology
in overcoming and negotiating certain impairments through
medicalisation, which has become an important aspect as far as persons
with disabilities are concerned. Anita Ghai emphasises this aspect but
deals with the issues of right to life of a disabled foetus, women’s
autonomy in decision-making with regard to abortion but does not
articulate the need for monitoring science and technology for the
orthopaedically impaired in everyday living. In today’s context, where
science and technology play a vital role, one needs to focus on
technological advancements in the medical field and apply them for the
improvement of disabled children to enable greater independence.
--
Avinash Shahi
M.Phil Research Scholar
Centre for The Study of Law and Governance
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi India
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Disability Studies India" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
an email to disability-studies-india+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to
disability-studies-in...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/disability-studies-india.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
--
Avinash Shahi
M.Phil Research Scholar
Centre for The Study of Law and Governance
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi India
Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of
mobile phones / Tabs on:
http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Search for old postings at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/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
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;
2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails
sent through this mailing list..
Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of
mobile phones / Tabs on:
http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Search for old postings at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/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
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;
2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent
through this mailing list..
