Some awareness has recently begun to build in Indian society on the need to rethink disability. Through whose efforts has this mainly come about?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The disabled themselves
Option (1) Medical and rehabilitation experts — Incorrect. Experts are not the source of this change. The push to rethink disability has come from disabled people, and the government has had to respond to their efforts.
Option (2) International welfare agencies — Incorrect. No outside welfare agency is credited with this awareness. The efforts to redress the situation came from within, from the disabled themselves.
Option (3) The disabled themselves — Correct. Awareness on the need to rethink disability has built up only recently, through the efforts of the disabled themselves. Their struggle also made the government respond, as the notification in Box 5.8 shows.
Option (4) Special schools and their teachers — Incorrect. Special schools belong to a separate stream for disabled students. Keeping two separate streams, one for disabled students and one for everyone else, sidelines disability and has not built this awareness.
NCERT (2026-27): “5.4 The Struggles of the Disabled … “It is only recently with the efforts of the disabled themselves that some awareness is building in the society on the need to rethink ‘disability’. This is illustrated by the newspaper report on the next page.” “Recognition of disability is absent from the wider educational discourse. This is evident from the historical practices within the educational system that continue to marginalise the issue of disability by maintaining two separate streams – one for disabled students and one for everyone else.” |