This book critically analyses diverse experiences related to disability in India. Drawing upon intersectionality theory, it explores a range of issues regarding everyday experiences of disability in relation to gender, religion, social experiences, and Indias neoliberal economy and its built environment. From theoretical to deeply personal, this book discusses themes like invisible disability and identity; women with disabilities in India; bodily frustrations and cultural stigma; emotional stability and self-esteem of children with disabilities; neurodiversity and queerness; and overcoming the barriers. It also emphasizes the impact of the writings of women with disabilities on their personal experiences. The volume discusses perspectives and practices of schooling, curricular transactions, and inclusive education that have evolved for children who are deaf in India.
Conversational and interdisciplinary, this book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of disability studies, social care, mental health, social psychology, gender studies, social work, and special education.
Drawing upon intersectionality theory, it explores a range of issues regarding everyday experiences of disability in relation to gender, religion, social experiences, Indias neoliberal economy, and the built environment.
Part I: Building theory-
1. Introduction- Sandhya Limaye and Misa Kayama
Part II: Reflections of the Experiences of Disability: Emergent Disability
Studies Scholarship-
2. Rights or Rehabilitation? Ways of Institutionalizing
Disability Studies in India- Nilika Mehrotra
3. Disability, Gender, and the
Trajectories of Identity in India- Asha Hans
4. Deaf Education in India: From
the Lens of an Academician- Varsha Gathoo
5. Being Whole: Synthesising
Identity, Spirituality and Disability- Srilatha Juvva and Prerana Sharma
6.
Embodiment, Identity and Design for Disability- Shilpa Das Part III:
Reflections of the Experiences of Disability: Disability and Diversity in
Practice
7. Little People: Bodily Frustrations and cultural stigma- Nandini
Ghosh
8. Transitioning self: Psychiatric Diagnosis and its impact- Mahima
Nayar
9. Employees with disabilities at workplace: Voice of Persons with
disabilities- Mohita
10. Living with Disability: Experiences of Women with
Disabilities from Odisha- Sankalpa Satpathy
11. Lived experiences of persons
with learning disabilities: Journey from stigmatization to acceptance-
Deepali Kapoor Part IV: Personal Narratives-
12. Becoming a Disabled,
Multi-lingual, Colonized, Indian Researcher: Dilemmas of Researching
Disability and Inclusive Education- Tanushree Sarkar
13. Unsettling
Neuro-Queerness: Exploring the Relationships Between Mental Disabilities and
Queerness Beyond Intersectionality- Suchaita Tenneti
14. Overcoming the
Barriers: Challenging the Challenge- Amitabh Mehrotra Part V: Conclusion-
15.
Bourdieus Field, Habitus, Cultural Contestation, and Disability Studies:
Concluding Thoughts on Disability and Diversity in India - Christopher
Johnstone
Index
Sandhya Limaye is a Professor and Chair of the Centre for Disability Studies and Action, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. As an Erasmus Mundus, Nehru-Fulbright, and Rockefeller fellow, she presented the alternate report on women with disability in India at the UN, Geneva. She also is involved in C 20 Summit for Diversity, Equity, and Disability groups in India.
Christopher J. Johnstone is an Associate Professor of Comparative and International Development Education, University of Minnesota, USA. He has written widely on issues of inclusive education, inclusive development, higher education, and disability studies. He first visited India as an undergraduate study abroad student and has since led two major research grants on topics related to disability with his colleague Sandhya Limaye.
Misa Kayama, Ph.D., MSW, is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Mississippi, USA. Her research focuses on the cultural shaping of childrens experience of stigmatization due to disability in Asian countries and the U.S., and other intersectional issues such as race and immigration status, through cross-cultural, ethnographic approaches. The findings have been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and two academic books.
