Just 'cos I'm not stood up
like you:
Does not mean there is very little for myself that I can do.
- Michael W. Williams
NEW DELHI: She is over thirty and holds a masters degree in Gender Studies from the Institute of Education, London — but that still doesn't stop most people from addressing her as if she were a child.
Or asking her helper if she needs any sugar in her tea. It is this paternalistic attitude towards persons with disabilities that exasperates Malini Chib no end.
"People ruffle my hair, ask me where my mother is. How often is a 30-year-old asked where her mother is?" says Chib, in the city to attend a conference on inclusive education.
She asserts the need for an education system that is inclusive rather than segregationist since children who study in special schools are "over-protectively nurtured" and unprepared to take on the world.
"Everything that a disabled person does is considered superb. Their decisions are taken by non-disabled people who think they know best. The result is that disabled people are disempowered," she says.
After her initial years in a special school, Malini went on to do her higher studies at the Institute of Education which offered her for the first time an environment where she was treated on par with everyone else. She is a trustee of the Spastics Society of India. "My teachers saw me first as a student and then my disability," she says.
The institute also offered her the freedom to move about freely without constantly having someone to help her. She recalls how she could join her friends anywhere, access the library, computer centre or the bar and how this easy accessibility gave her a sense of belonging.
So how different are things in India? "Here (in India) one wants to go out or catch a movie but there's
no access," she says. In terms of attitudes she says, "We're also constantly teaching everybody that — we're a part of you — and this process emotionally drains you."
She recounts her last experience with the media. "The journalist kept directing all questions to the girl who was there to help me.
And then when the report was published she said that I was mentally challenged despite mentioning my double MA," she
says. "One has to learn to laugh at these things," she adds.