“The problem is not in a person’s disability, the problem more so exists in the society’s perspective towards it”
As humans, we were never the fastest or the strongest species making us extremely vulnerable to the mechanics of the food chain but what potentially made us survive in the world of the fittest as Darwin would call it, was the element of our tribal operations i.e. belonging and swearing allegiance to a knitted group stemming from blood ties, culture, religion or other demographic distinctions. When a group of individuals have to operate in harmony, what becomes quintessential is “division of labour”. While in the early days a key skill needed was offering protection and food, ability to fulfil that carved out the fundamental structure of the clan. So, essentially what paved our way to survive in early evolution has marked our biases in the present societal constructs.
Ability to Perform or Merit is what has been our apex yardstick for evaluation in our society and workplaces but what we need to reflect upon is “Do we have the egalitarian framework towards opportunities?” Now the statement might seem to have an effortless comprehension but let me try to express the subtlety and to a varying degree the irony in our plausibly flawless approach to merit.
Although the example operates in extreme binaries which I am deliberately choosing to draw attention to the stark differences in access, but one can tune the extents of extremity and the instances of distinction shall stay consistent across the spectrum. Now think of a person A who is born in an affluent family, got the chance to seek education at the best of the universities which now makes him express himself eloquently while on the other hand, you have person B whose parents abandoned her for lack of financial sustenance, she could barely make it to high school as the guardians couldn’t afford any further which indeed reflects on how she can express herself. Now, let’s say we are recruiting for a management trainee role in our team, a person who would be offered thorough training even before being inducted to a team – whom do you think to stand a higher chance of getting the position considering I put both of them in the interview room? I think so you have your pick despite us never even discussing merit.
The world is filled with multiple illustrations operating across the spectrums of boundaries governed by class, caste, race, gender and even ability. Unfortunately, our mind being this fascinating apparatus also is plagued with biases which operate majorly to offer simplistic narratives, while I can’t elude the element of simplicity in thinking from a need standpoint but some profound inquiries need nuance. One such mystery being that of Merit being the only benchmark.
A certain community that has been absolutely invisible in policy and practice is the Persons with Disabilities, for whom our default response is that of sympathy but even today not of providing equal opportunities. Let me try to press on the gravity of the void that exists – There are more than a billion persons with disabilities across the world so literally, 1 out of every 7 people suffers from a disability of some sorts, India being a country that I come from has assistance access of sheer 15% with more than 90% of persons with disabilities belonging to low-income households thereby making the case for support all the more dire.
Although our legislation mandates a reservation for Persons with Disabilities across education and employment opportunities offered by the state, still we have an insane 70% unemployment rate amongst the differently-abled community. Now I used to be at odds with reservation as a concept but I can comprehend its need now but let that be a topic of another blog. What I would certainly like to reflect upon are the failings of the state to provide the optimum assistance in the form of academic and employment support, our societies to exhibit sympathy but no introspection on the concept of demonstrating ability in absence of support and most of all our corporates who have proclaimed Diversity & Inclusion as a vanity metric rather than in practice. Now, in the light of the evidence or the opinion, one might feel it’s a fool’s errand to have expectations from the community or the corporate but that certainly is not the case. There have been phenomenal displays of the differently-abled community being offered skilling support and even fulfilling employment opportunities by organizations (on which I shall be throwing some light in next blog in the series) but what I believe is we need to invest more in our pursuit to a world where access to assistance and opportunities would match the aspirations to thrive for the differently-abled community.
Let me state the obvious while drawing the conclusion that Diversity & Inclusion is more of a responsibility than a choice now. For centuries, the world has deprived certain communities for quality support or equal opportunities or sometimes both. Let us all pledge to provide for an inclusive world not for mere optics but as a genuine endeavour as it certainly promises a better version of the world for all of us.
About the Author
Mohit is an inclusion activist and works for an idea to provide effective yet affordable assistive devices for persons with disabilities. One can reach out to him at camohitchelani@gmail.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohitchelani
