Indian Express: New Delhi: Thursday,
June 02, 2016.
Ignoring
strong objections from disability rights organisations, the government has
replaced the word “viklang jan” (persons with disabilities) with “divyang jan”
(persons with extraordinary abilities) for the department that comes under the
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE).
Recently, the
Cabinet Secretariat issued a notification renaming Viklangjan Sashaktikaran
Vibhag (Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) as Divyangjan
Sashaktikaran Vibhag the word Divyangjan has been added in brackets to the
English version.
Replying to
an RTI query filed by a disability rights organisation opposed to the move,
MSJE said it consulted six independent organisations dealing with disabilities,
in addition to some government-run ones, and all states and union territories,
before the nomenclature change.
The
independent organisations, named in the reply dated April 12, include National
Association of the Deaf (NAD), National Centre for Promotion of Employment for
Disabled People (NCPEDP), National Federation of the Blind (NFB), National
Association for the Blind (NAB), Amar Jyoti and Action for Mental Illness
(ACMI).
But when The
Indian Express contacted these organisations, five denied receiving any
official correspondence from the ministry. Only the Bangalore-based ACMI said
they received a letter but only after they contacted the ministry on being
informed by another NGO that their name figured on the list.
It was in his
last Mann Ki Baat address of 2015, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke
about how he thought that ‘divyang’ should replace ‘viklang’ as in his view
such people are endowed with ‘extra power’ and ‘divyata’ (divinity).
But several
disability rights NGOs have written to the ministry protesting the term which
they state is “patronising”.
“Even going
by the ministry’s claims, except ACMI, all others are Delhi-based
organisations. Those in Chennai and West Bengal have strongly opposed this
word. No comments were sought from them,” said Abha Khetarpal, a counsellor for
the disabled and a polio survivor who was instrumental in getting the RTI
replies from the Centre.
Union
Minister for MSJE Thaawar Chand Gehlot said, “The idea behind the name change
is that as soon as you say viklang, our attention goes to what is broken in the
person, his flaws. Our culture and civilisation says that we should use words
that don’t hurt another person. The United Nations consulted many countries and
came up with ‘persons with disability’. But in India, such people have been
called divyang right from the ancient times since they have a special body. In
our culture, we have had gifted people like Asthavakra, the sage who had eight
deformities or Surdas, the blind singer.”
He added that
it was the opinion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a majority of the states
agreed. “Usually, we can take such a decision on our own but we decided to
involve states and NGOs before sending the file to the PMO. There may be a few
organisations that are not happy with the use of the term but it is not
possible to consult everyone on the matter,” said Gehlot.
“This term
attributing divine power to us is simply condescending. When Gandhi used the
term Harijan, the community rejected it. We have a right to decide what we want
to be identified as, and not the Prime Minister,” said disability activist Dr
Satendra Singh.
He added that
India was one of the first major countries to ratify the UN Convention on
Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) under which it has agreed to use
the terminology ‘persons with disabilities’.
Singh,
Khetarpal and several organisations such as the All India Confederation of the
Blind have written to the PMO and the MSJE slamming what they term is a
discriminatory and euphemistic word for ordinary people with disabilities.
Most of the
six organisations that the ministry claims to have consulted told The Indian
Express that a nomenclature change is a futile exercise that doesn’t really
translate into attitudinal change.
“The
so-called positive terminology has no meaning if the stigmatisation and
marginalisation continues. Being referred to as a supernatural being isn’t okay
either. We have disabilities, acknowledge it,” said NAD secretary AS Narayanan.
Javed Abidi,
from NCPED, said that the etymology of the word ‘viklang’ has negative
connotations. “However, I do not endorse the use of the word divyang as it is
superfluous. Maybe Hindi linguists can come up with an alternative. Until then
we need to focus on real issues that affect persons with disabilities” he said.
According to
the MSJE, of the 36 states and union territories, 14 have concurred with the
ministry while six have opposed it or suggested alternatives. “Sixteen states
and UTs have not replied within the stipulated time; it was our prerogative to
change the name and we did it since the others had replied in favour of it,”
said an MSJE official.
He added that
while the English usage of the word ‘persons with disabilities’ will continue,
in Hindi it will be changed to divyang. “Until 2012, we used the word
‘nishakt’. This was found to be offensive and changed to ‘viklang’. In English,
there are other words such as differently-abled or specially-abled but in Hindi
the scope is limited,” he said.
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