Disability and Gender: An Intersectional Lens

In India, a culture of silence surrounds reproductive health, menstruation and menstrual practices. As social, cultural, and religious biases govern the attitude towards menstruation, it is difficult to generate awareness on menstrual hygiene management. In many parts of the country, especially in rural areas, girls are not duly prepared for menstruation so they face many difficulties and challenges at home, school, and the workplace. The situation is worse for girls with disabilities as different types of disabilities may impose hurdles in mobility and may reduce visual and auditory ability, speech and cognitive capabilities. As a result, a girl with a disability may face greater challenges managing menstrual health as compared to a non-disabled peer. Knowledge about and access to menstrual health and hygiene practices forms a critical contributor to determining the quality of life of a girl with a disability. Girls with disabilities may have different and individualistic experiences of menstruation. These could be intrinsic to every individual

Living with a disability cannot be a gender-neutral experience. Women and girls with disabilities experience intersecting inequities and exclusion, due to both their gender and disability. More than one billion people in the world experience some form of disability. According to World Health Organization (WHO), the average prevalence rate in the female population who are 18 years and older is 19.2 per cent, compared to 12 per cent for males,representing around 1 in 5 women.

Women and girls with disabilities are not a homogenous group and hence, the discrimination faced by them also is layered based on their socio-economic identities. They encounter various systemic and attitudinal barriers that prevent their social and economic participation. Per the UN DESA's flagship report, women with disabilities are three times more likely to have unmet healthcare needs, three times more likely to be illiterate, two times less likely to be employed and two times less likely to use the internet in comparison to men without disabilities. Amongst children with disabilities (CWDs) aged 5-19 years, with 60.45% of girls attending educational institutions as opposed to 61.75% boys, the N 4 Nose report by UNESCO report documents that there are fewer girls with disabilities in schools than boys.

"Women with disabilities already experienced a higher cost of living and this was amplified by the increased cost of food, transport and health care during the pandemic" noted UN Women in its paper that discusses the experiences of women with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region during COVID-19. Due to the absence of reasonable accommodation, most women with disabilities are unable to find and sustain their employment. This worsened their ability to provide for their families when other members of their family were also unable to work during the coronavirus pandemic.

In India, a culture of silence surrounds reproductive health, menstruation and menstrual practices.As social, cultural, and religious biases govern the attitude towards menstruation, it is difficult to generate awareness on menstrual hygiene management. In many parts of the country, especially in rural areas, girls are not duly prepared for menstruation so they face many difficulties and challenges at home, school, and the workplace. The situation is worse for girls with disabilities as different types of disabilities may impose hurdles in mobility and may reduce visual and auditory ability, speech and cognitive capabilities. As a result, a girl with a disability may face greater challenges managing menstrual health as compared to a non-disabled peer. Knowledge about and access to menstrual health and hygiene practices forms a critical contributor to determining the quality of life of a girl with a disability. Girls with disabilities may have different and individualistic experiences of menstruation. These could be intrinsic to every individual. Each story of physical development, health condition, medical effects and degree of impairment tells us a unique story.Often the families and caregivers of girls with disabilities find it convenient to either administer oral pills to regulate menstruation or perform surgical procedures to either remove whole or part of uterus. Girls with disabilities, thus, find themselves at a very vulnerable position and often with no or very little agency over their bodies to make such decisions.

As a girl with a disability, access to education, health care including sexual and reproductive health, services and justice, as well as civic and political participation is also affected. In general, employment opportunities for persons with disabilities have been found to be low and it is even skim for women with disabilities. They face further gender-related barriers like unavailability of accessible infrastructure, wide gender pay gap, unequal access to childcare facilities, etc. Thus, this increases the risk of violence and abuse including sexual violence against women and girls with disabilities; early and forced marriage discrimination as well as harmful gender-based discriminatory practices.

It is the need of the hour to ensure that adequate and particular measures are initiated by the state to safeguard the rights of women and girls with disabilities. Data taking into consideration the additional costs of disability, effective social protection schemes that uplift the community of women and girls with disabilities should be introduced. Women with disabilities must take representative and leadership roles on issues that affect them and guide the mainstream discourse to truly 'Build Back Better'.

By Arman Ali

The writer is the Executive Director,

National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People

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