Disabled Definitions, Impaired Policies: Reflections on Limits of Dominant Concepts of Disability

Disability is a complex category as it is understood and interpreted in very different ways. While disability has been defined primarily in terms of medical deficit, socio-cultural constructions give meaning to impairments and influence the experiences and interactions of disabled people in different socio-historical contexts. The different models of disability help to illuminate the multi-faceted definitions of disability, through debates that have described it either as a medical 'problem' or as socio-cultural constructions reflecting the power relationships between disabled and non-disabled people. Although disability is projected as a departure from an un-stated physical and functional norm, it becomes a highly relative concept, with people placed at varying degrees of ablebodiedness or disability within differing socio-cultural contexts. In India, historical evolution of social policy towards disabled people, from a charity perspective to one of welfare and recently to equal participation, has been a difficult and lengthy process. Disability policy in India reflects the cultural assumptions, changing definitions and social perceptions of disability and the power relations that shape it. In response to international developments advocating the rights of disabled people, the Persons with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1995 and the National Policy for Persons with Disabilities was framed in 2006. However, these landmark policy documents still operate within limited medical definitions of disability, which determine special provisions and programmes for disabled people and reflect the lack of political will of the State to promote inclusion.