Repositioning youth with disabilities: focusing on their social and work lives

Abstract

In India, according to the 2001 census, 41% of the total population is under 34 years old. The National Youth Policy is committed to their all round development and identifies ‘disabled youth’ as a priority focus. Based on data collected through interviews, this paper examines the participation and purposeful engagement of youth with disabilities. The research findings suggest that many of the exclusions faced by these youth were not primarily because of their impairment, but rather were significantly determined by the socio-cultural and economic realities of their lives. Evidence also highlights these young people's strong sense of independence and personal competence.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the many young people with disabilities and their families who so generously shared their thoughts and experiences with us. We would like to thank our Indian partner, Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD), whose staff collected and coded the data, and wrote a preliminary report. Our thanks also go to two referees for their helpful comments.

Notes

The United Nations defines youth as persons between 15 and 24 years of age.

‘Kucha’ houses are made of materials such as mud, old rags, a few sticks etc. and are not of much shelter against natural elements, while ‘pucca’ houses are made of much stronger building material like bricks etc.

Throughout the paper, even though we use the ‘person-first language’, we identify the young person's impairment. We decided not to adopt a cross impairment approach as there were significant differences, on some dimensions, between the various types of impairment. Additionally, as education was an important variable in our research, the level of schooling achieved by the young person has also been given. The clear identification of both these variables – type of impairment and educational level – is intended to enhance the transparency of our findings.

All the interviews were conducted in Hindi. The quotes provided here are translations which have been checked by at least two researchers fluent in both Hindi and English.

1 lakh = 100 thousand (in this case, rupees).

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is the most recent effort by the government to universalise elementary education.