Question -
Answer -
Scholars and social reformers have shown that the inequalities between men and women are social rather than natural. The women’s question became prominent in the 19 th Century. Raja Rammohun Roy’s attempt to reform society, religion and status of women in Bengal. He undertook the campaign against “Sati” which was the first women’s issue to receive public attention.
Jyotiba Phule was from socially excluded caste and he attacked both caste and gender discrimination. He established the Satyashodhak Samaj with its primary emphasis on truth seeking. ”
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan made efforts to reform Muslim Society. He wanted girls to be educated, but within the precincts of their homes.
He stood for women’s education but sought for a curriculum that included instruction in religious principles, training in arts of housekeeping and handicrafts and rearing of children.
Tarabai Shinde a Maharashtrian housewife, wrote, Stree Purush Tulana as a protest against the double standards of a male dominated society.
Women’s issues emphatically surfaced in 1970s . The burning issues were rape of women in police custody, dowry murders and gender injustice, etc. The new challenges have come in the form of social bias against the girl child sex ratio which is falling very « sharply.
11. In what sense can one sly that ‘disability’ is as much a social as a physical thing?
Ans. • The disabled are struggling not because they are physically or mentally challenged but also because society is built in a manner that does not cater to their needs.
•In the Indian context, one of the leading scholars of disability, Anita Ghai, argues that the invisibility of the disabled can be compared to the Invisible Man of Ralph Ellison which is a famous indictment of racism against African Americans in the USA.
•Common features of the public perceptions of disability are:
1.Disability is understood as a biological factor.
2.Whenever a disabled person is confronted with problems, it is taken for granted that the problems originate from his/her impairment.
3.The disabled person is seen as a victim.
4.Disability is supposed to be linked with the disabled individual’s self perception.
5.The very idea of disability suggests that they are in need of help.
•In India, in a culture that looks up to “bodily perfection’, all deviations from the “perfect body’ signify abnormality, defect and distortion. Lables such as “bechara’ accentuate the victim status for the disabled person.
•The roots of such attitude lie in the cultural conception that views an impaired body as a result of fate. Destiny is seen as the culprit, and disabled people are the victims. The common perception views disability as retribution for the past karma (action) from which there can be no reprieve. The dominant cultural construction in India, therefore looks at disability as essentially a characteristic of the individual. The popular images in mythology portray the disabled in an extremely negative fashion.
•The very term ‘disabled’ challenges each of these assumptions. The disabled are rendered disabled not because of biology but because of society.
•The social construction of disability has yet another dimension. There is a close relationship between disability and poverty. Malnutrition, mothers weakened by frequent childbirth, inadequate immunization programmes, accidents in overcrowded homes, all contribute to an incidence of disability among the poor people that is higher among people living in easier circumstances.
•Disability creates and exacerbates poverty by increasing isolation and economic strain, not just for the individual but for the family.
•Recognition of disability is absent from the wider educational discourse. This is evident from the historical practices within the educational system that continues to marginalize the issue of disability by maintaining two separate streams—one for disabled students and one for everyone else.
•The concepts of inclusion is still an experimental concept in our educational system which is restricted to few public schools only.