Parents are valuable allies in the Disability Rights Movement thanks to their intimate engagement with persons with disability. To view them as representatives of a ‘disabling’ society does them a grave injustice. However, the heated debates over the new Rights for Persons with Disabilities Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha  have seen a confrontation of stances between two groups along these lines.

The first group consists of vocal self-advocates who point out a number of weaknesses and contradictions in the Bill from a Rights perspective, citing the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability ratified by India in 2007.

The other group is a loose coalition of ‘cross-disability’ activists including lobbying for a speedy passage of the Bill, with crucial amendments, in what is the last session  of this Parliament and of the government of the day, which just happens to be UPA.

It is important to note that this Bill has not just dropped down from the heavens; it is the end result of years of protracted consultations, contestations, confrontation by stake-holders across the sector. I do not propose here to go into the pros and cons of its provisions; rather, I wish to highlight a rather disturbing trend that I discern in the frenetic exchanges between some self-advocates in the sector and parent activists on the social media.  Continue reading Disability Rights And Parental Activism – Can They Co-Exist? Shubhangi Vaidya →