Investing in persons with disabilities

A recent Hindi movie, Srikanth, starring Rajkummar Rao, narrates the story of the industrialist Srikanth Bolla and his journey of overcoming the challenge of visual impairment. Educational institutions lack the necessary infrastructure and support mechanisms and workplaces lack robust diversity policies that would give proper representation to PwDs. In 2023, Shiv Nadar University enumerated a disability support policy, which includes providing personalised support to students on a case-by-case basis, depending on the student’s health condition every semester. Despite the University Grants Commission’s draft accessibility and inclusivity guidelines for higher education institutions to ensure that admission announcements and In terms of employment, despite the legislative mandate of providing reservation for PwDs, and of drafting an equal opportunity policy detailing the measures proposed by the establishment to ensure an inclusive work environment and prohibit discrimination at the workplace, employers have failed to do these. Sociologist Colin Barnes has argued that PwDs are “portrayed as objects of pity, violence, curiosity and ridicule, as burdens on society, sexually abnormal, and overall, as people incapable of community participation”.