Disability Studies in India: Retrospects and Prospects

During recent decades the issue of disability has metamorphosed from a purely individual medical/clinical problem to a human rights and socio-political issue. Consequently, the study of Disability Studies is constantly gaining recognition as a critical area of academic investigation in the universities and academic institutions of Western countries-such as, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia and degrees/diplomas ranging from graduation to post-doctorate levels are offered in this discipline. But in our country which has the highest populations of the disabled in the world, the situation is quite reverse. Notwithstanding plethora of studies and research carried out in developed societies; this is, still, a grey and unexplored area. This has led to the issue of disability being studied as merely the part of the syllabi of certain specific disciplines and that, too, in a rather piecemeal fashion. This work seeks to provide a brief recapitulation of the growth of Disability Studies as an academic discipline in the Western universities and thereby exploring the prospects for incorporating the teaching of this emerging discipline in Indian universities and academic institutions.