Day 10: Community Cafe

Rapporteur: Sudaroli Ramasamy

It was Sunday evening when I reached the Better World Shelter for Women with Disabilities at Royapettah. The two things lingering in my mind before I started the conversation with the residents of the shelter home were:

1. The precautions that I need to take care of while I am bringing up the conversation for the Community Cafe. Because I do not want to trigger them at any point of time during the chit-chat.

2. The kind of language I should use in terms of consciously using the words with regard to disability in Tamil.

But once I reached there, they burst my bubbles of thoughts in the air with their bright smiles and giggling with laughter; they made me so comfortable. We sat in a big circle, it was a casual conversation. I started the same with asking them to introduce themselves with their name and one thing they are fond of. They were very enthusiastic and eager to share what they liked - it ranged from their love for malligai poo (jasmine flower) to eating ice cream. After the introduction, they started taking the conversation forward from the status of women in the society to the discrimination they face in public spaces, workspaces, etc. The conversation was around their own experiences in the purview of disabilities and the challenges they face. They were talking about how the people are not empathetic towards them; how it was very challenging when they travel in the bus; how the people do not want to see them when they start a day/ go for an auspicious activity; the layers of religion and gender added to the disability and posed itself as several layers of burden.

They were sharing about the people's attitude to them based on their religion when they were approached for matchmaking for marriage. I was quite enraged when I heard them say - though the bridegroom had a disability, his family would look for the non-SC girl and it did not matter if the girl had a disability or not. The residents were talking about how people took advantage of them under the guise of helping the residents. One visually-impaired girl was describing how a man who helped her earlier, stalked her to the shelter. Sexual abuse and exploitation are not the exclusion here. Each of their experiences speaks about their solidarity in supporting each other in all instances.

 

Dr. Aishwarya Rao, the founder of the organization, was part of the conversation. It was heartwarming to see the friendly relationship between the residents and the founder. They were very casually talking in her presence without any hesitation. She flagged how vulnerable they are in all spaces - public and private. She was very proud of the strong bond of solidarity expressed by the residents.

It was a great experience to learn from them, to know the importance of solidarity, finding the little joys in life and fighting against all odds with a smile.

Day 13: Reporting Gender Violence Against Persons With Disabilities: Media Training

On the 13th day of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence, The Network of Women in Media in India, Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Centre, and Prajnya invited Dr. Aishwarya Rao to conduct a short training on how to report gender-based violence against people with disabilities, including themes of what is the appropriate language; what questions should be asked, and which ones avoided; and legal frameworks. Here are a few key discussion points from the session:

• "Over the years we have seen reporting on violence, particularly in the context of women with disabilities has improved. Almost every year, once in every ten days at least, a mainstream newspaper or news channel talks to either me or my colleague in the disability sector, or the other women with disabilities I work with. And definitely, the reporters come with a good amount of sensitization. And so, the stories that are reported definitely show more focus, better language - there is definitely a significant improvement. But more work needs to be done."
  
  
• "Though the scale of violence for persons with disabilities is high, especially for women with disabilities or persons who identify as women, coverage has seldom been adequate when you compare the extent of the problem."
  
  
• "There is no big violence and small violence. Every violence, every infringement of a right, every harm, every suffering that anybody goes through on account of simply being of a gender that is different from the dominant gender or the gender that has the upper hand - all these are worth reporting. But somehow we see sexual violence gets more eyeballs."

• "When journalists write or report instances of violence perpetrated on young women, other women, the minorities, sexual minorities or children with disabilities, here are some pointers that are important for us to keep in mind when such reports or stories are made:

1. To be accurate and use the right language

2. To get the survivor's voice out and to not victim blame

3. Talk to experts

4. Educate the public

5. Include information where survivors and families can get assistance"

• "Victims or survivors of violence, or persons upon whom violence ha been inflicted are many times portrayed as objects of pity. And, there is a great deal of stereotyping that happens. And, whether we like it or not, there is a great deal of disability voyeurism that happens."
  
  
• "Popular narrative, at least in regional languages when discussing disability and talking disability has always been cringe. Sometimes I wonder whether the language itself is inadequate in explaining the disability and in explaining the life of a person with a disability. 
  
  
  
  
  
• "There are some questions that are worth remembering to ask - 

How can I raise awareness?

Is the portrayal consistent with the respect for the person?

Name the disability and the vulnerability?

Link the issue to a larger overarching issue or a broad theme on the basis of which policy initiatives can be better informed."

• "When there is a confusion, use the word disability and it is okay, rather than impairment, special needs, deficit, because then we are going to the definition of disability. Disability is not defined as a characteristic of that person. So we don't look at locomotive disability as an impairment of that person. Disability itself is defined as an interaction between the person and the environment...Disability is about how a person with a disability interacts with the environment...Instead of using wheelchair-bound, use wheelchair user. Disabled is the most preferred by activists. Persons with a disability or PwD is always safe....the appropriate words to use are a person with a developmental disability, a person with an intellectual disability, intellectually/developmentally disabled, a person with mental health issues, or a person with so-and-so diagnosis. Don't use a person with autism, use autistic or neurodivergent. Don't use patient. Instead, refer to them by their name- so-and-so who has this particular condition. Always refer to the person with the name. Don't use mute, high-functioning, low-functioning - it is best to leave out the description of functioning. 'Special needs' is not okay, instead talk about reasonable accommodation or modifications. Never use sufferer, afflicted, stricken."
  

Dr. Rao has generously made her presentation available to us for reference. You can access it on Slideshare.