AN ABLEIST PROPOSAL

Context: UP draft Population Bill stigmatises and devalues persons with disabilities.

Background: The draft Bill, even while adopting a highly objectionable and coercive approach to population control, grants exemption to certain classes of individuals from the two-child norm (under Section 15).

• It lays down that, “... an action of an individual shall not be deemed to be in contravention of the two-child norm under this Act if either, or both, of his children born out of the earlier pregnancy, suffers from disability and the couple conceives a third child subsequently”.

Issues with the exemptions:

• Poor enumeration of disability: One does not “suffer” from a disability but rather because of it.
• Ableist in nature: It seeks to invoke an ableist mindset and tends to view the disabled as non-existent and equivalent to being dead.
  • It reinforces the belief of disability being a curse and thus views the disabled as a burden while underlining that having a disabled child is as good as not having one at all.
  • This is despite people like IAS officer Ira Singhal and many others proving that they can overcome hurdles, both societal and structural.
  • It also compels individual parents and society at large to think in terms of opting for another child, who they presume will be able-bodied and provide support to the family.
  • It is no coincidence that Section 15 of the draft Bill is titled “Of Death or Disability of Child”. It equates the two.
• Lack of understanding of what constitutes a disability as also its heterogeneous status:
  • The Bill draws from the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, to define disability. 
  • There are 21 conditions listed in the Act. These include impairments like visual, hearing and speech, locomotor, intellectual disabilities as also blood disorders and learning disabilities like dyslexia.
  • There is a total disregard of the thrust of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which India ratified, as also the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Conclusion: The UP draft Bill seeks to codify and institutionalise an ableist mindset. It stigmatises and devalues the disabled as lesser beings. Apart from its regressive, anti-poor and anti-women nature, it should also be opposed for reinforcing an ableist mindset.