The department of special education at SNDT Juhu, held a conference on “The rights of differently abled women” in collaboration with the National Commission of Women (NCW) on Thursday. It was a two-day conference with over 200 participants from all over the country, where issues related to inclusivity and sensitivity towards differently-abled women were discussed.
The event was inaugurated by the Chairperson, the National Commission for Women, Rekha Sharma, and the Vice Chancellor of SNDT, Ujwala Chakradeo on Thursday. During her address, the Chairperson of NCW, said that the society treats specially-abled women with sympathy and not empathy.
Equal access, opportunity, and resources should be given so that all women become self-dependent and empowered.
"Marriage is also a concern for specially-abled women and everything revolves around marriage. They should be supported in their family and by the government to overcome such obstacles.
"A speech given by the former Chairperson of the Rehabilitation Council of India, Sudesh Mukhopadhyay touched upon topics like the emotional and economical freedom of differently-abled women.
"In our country, more boys are born disabled compared to girls but more girls become disabled by the age of five. This is because the girl child, even though she is healthy, is neglected by the parents who do not give proper treatment to them when they are young," pointed out Prof. Mukhopadhyay.
According to her, disability itself has many divisions including physical and mental, all of these need to be sensitised so that topics like economic empowerment, poverty, and self-esteem of these women can be tackled.
There is also a great need to protect them from being subjected to multiple aggravated forms of discrimination as well sexual exploitation and abuse in situation of risks.
'Women already face discrimination in almost all spheres, then imagine the condition of women who are disabled and living in our society. The disability gap is greater than the gender gap in India compared to the rest of the countries," she added.
The two-day conference is on Thursday and Friday, where special educators, NGO members, among others have participated.
