Violence Against Women with Disabilities in India: A Literature Review

This literature review explores the prevalence and impact of violence against women with disabilities in India, as well as the legal frameworks in place to protect them. It highlights the disproportionate rates of abuse and discrimination faced by this population and the need for gender-sensitive laws and amendments to existing legal frameworks.

Running head: DISABILITY AND INCLUSION STUDIES
DISABILITY AND INCLUSION STUDIES
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Literature Review:
Introduction:
Social norms and customs in India are radically influenced by ideologies, values such
as productivity, authorization towards private property accusation and patriarchy along with
the significance of the rule of law, marriage alliance along with the importance of religion.
Family regarded as the able-bodied, heterosexual entity involves the socially suitable
livelihoods of its members. However, the past evaluation of ideas associated with women’s
empowerment have dealt with economic deprivation, caste and employment as well as issues
related tom dowry, sati, female feticide and domestic abuse (Ortoleva & Lewis, 2012). The
perceptions associated with disabilities and impairments in India must be taken into utmost
consideration as it tends to represent an individualistic flaw to the society. However, acts of
violence and assault have been perpetrated as well as disregarded by the State as well as
private actors within the domain of public and private institutions and in the transitional
domain. It has been evaluated that women facing obstacles because of visual, hearing
impairments or locomotor disabilities have the higher degree of exposure towards domestic
abuse along with other forms of gender-based and sexual abuse as non-disabled women and
have higher degree of possibilities to experience violence for prolonged period and suffer
immensely critical harms due to the result of severe rate of abuse (Daruwalla et al., 2013).
Further to note, from a charity or welfare perspective, forms of disability or impairments
demonstrate the notions of suffering whereby the voices have been raised against abuse
towards women have been identified as a collective approach. Furthermore, the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) has recognized
that factors associated with disabilities are perceived as collective form of obstacles and
hindrances created towards active participation in societal acts along with the product of

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interaction between individuals, attitudinal as well as certain environmental dilemma and
obstacles (Khorrami-Nejad et al., 2016).
Exploration of issues related to the abuse towards women with disabilities in
India:
The rate of prevalence of impairments among women has been evaluated to be greater
in comparison to men. Daruwalla et al., (2016) has revealed that in India, while 15% of men
have been noted to have disabilities, the rate of percentage of women has been evaluated to
be over 25% (Smith, 2015). The greater degree among women is considered to be partially
attributable to an amalgamation of factors associated with the rate of women’s longer life
longevity, whereby the disabled bodied undergo sever effects of poor mental health care
especially in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. However, it has been evaluated that
women in India are exposed to a considerable rate towards physical, sexual, psychological as
well as economic violence in comparison to men. Furthermore, women and girls with
impairments tend to encounter certain situations involving certain forms of gender-based
abuse at disproportionately greater degree and in unique forms further owing to

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discrimination and stigma associated with gender and disability (Badjena, 2014). Observation
in the article “Sexual violence against women with disabilities and the legislative measures in
India” indicate women with impairments are exposed towards experiencing domestic abuse
and sexual assault at a considerable higher rate in particular because of their incompetence
including isolation, abuse in institutions as well as the preservation of medication and
mobility, vision and hearing impairments. Furthermore, women with disabilities reveal higher
tendencies of being subjective to forced medical treatment and reproductive health
procedures without their consent especially in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha
(Badjena, 2014). However, while there cannot be witnessed any significant national
disaggregated data based on the violence and abuse against women with disabilities, higher
administrative bodies have recognized the degree to which this segment encounters elevated
levels of threats of abuse with severe rates of sexual assault. A significant dearth of
population-based pervasiveness investigations has been noted in India that concentrates on
women and girls suffering from disabilities and impairments (Alhabib, Nur & Jones, 2010).
However, few scholarly and non-governmental organizations have casted light on these areas
which have further offered some significant insights and awareness related to these areas of
concern. Studies based on the rural districts of Odisha state has evaluated that a significant
section of women and young girls with visual impairments experience severe amount of
domestic violence involving physical assault and beating and women with intellectual
impairments had been raped. Furthermore, studies have revealed that 21% of the women
population with disabilities are exposed to the acts of emotional, physical or sexual abuse
from outsiders other than intimate associate (Smith, 2015).
Impact/Severity of Violence on Women with Impairments:

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Several studies indicate women with disabilities who have been raised with the
alliance of siblings and family members have often revealed a considerable rate of stability.
However the sense of being ‘different’ and ‘incompetent’ arose in their minds with gradual
societal influence which increased the rate of isolation among this population. Severe rate of
physical violence has posed critical impact on women’s self-perception whereby some
parents have reportedly took effective measurements in order to safeguard their daughters
from such events while the other segment shoved them towards the viscous circle of violence
and further denied them with opportunities which were enjoyed by the able-bodied
individuals (Alriksson‐Schmidt et al., 2010). Certain derogatory comments and ideologies
from peers and associates further demonstrated ideologies that disabled women are
significantly incompetent and thus are unemployable. Several experiences of women
encountered in childhood have posed persistent impact into their adulthood. Certain critical
accounts of physical assault, mistreatment in adulthood have been considered as a common
factor in their lives. Furthermore, with the understanding of the extensive popular conviction
related to physical abuse, the focus on articulating other forms of violence and abuse found
women to be involved in distressful and upsetting situations (Higgins, 2010). Thus, the
anticipation of potential physical violence, specifically the acts of abuse and violence which
have its occurrence within domestic sphere and marital domain along with the severe impacts
caused by it provide considerable explanations to the reasons what led these women confine
themselves into restricted social associations and involvement. Furthermore, the enigma of
imposing psychological, sentimental and economic hostility and aggression on these women
with disabilities exhibit why the major proportion of this abused population put utmost
emphasis on concealing these detrimental events and further confined them into the
confinement and find them in the milieu of severe emotional, psychological and economic

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hostility. The damaging and unfavourable effects of violence often result to an increased level
of panic and terror of further abuse and a sense of vulnerability (Saha & Saha, 2010).
However, social exclusion and segregation from family along with persistent rate of
avoidance from near close associates raise a sense of being a ‘burden’ to the family and
society among the disabled victims. Such perceptions further result to psychological as well
as physical distress which at certain times led these victimized women to commit suicide or
take certain inconsiderate steps. The significant notions and perceptions of disability which
condensed women to the rate of deficiencies associated to their physical impairment raise the
possibility of complexities and risks that increases their perception of being incompetent and
thus tend to maintain utmost silence about those destructive experiences and further loses
interest in the significance of their lives (Badjena, 2014). Furthermore, these detrimental
societal attitudes play a critical role in influencing the way the victimized women with
impairments have perceived themselves and their role and importance in the society. Though
few a negligible section gathered considerable level of buoyancy and viewed themselves as
competent enough to play a vital role in the society, a major proportion of this population
have been held of unconstructive and detrimental perceptions and raise the possibility to be

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further reinforced by a deficit of optimistic and constructive support, encouragement and
autonomy from the society.
Various forms of Violence against women with disabilities:
Impaired or disabled women have in general been silenced within societal domains,
denied of privileges and equal economic and social opportunities because of severe rate of
prejudice, marginalization, stigma and economic deficiency. States of Odisha, UP reveal the
way women belonging to these states are perceived as asexual further signifying that they are
denied the possibilities of developing intimate associations or involve into marital alliances.
It has often been assumed by the individuals of these pastoral societies that this section is
incompetent of handling maternal roles and responsibilities and therefore is often compelled
to the process of sterilization. Furthermore it has been noted that the ‘Violence Against
Women’ that is defined in Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence against Women state that women in India comprising of severe disabilities and
impairments reveal the greater degree of exposure towards gender based aggression that
further leads to physical, sexual or psychological injury or detrimental sufferings which
includes threats and terror of such aggressive acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
autonomy whether have its incidence in public or in private life. Furthermore, another severe
form of violence imposed against women with disabilities has been the acts of forced
sterilization which has elevated the rights of women suffering from psycho-social and
intellectual impairment as they have been situated at the most vulnerable section of the
society and thus being subjected to forced treatment and institutionalization pertaining to the
grounds of care and safeguard regimes. However, at this juncture it is important to note that
with the elevating rate of sexual and emotional abuse against women with visual, locomotor
or other forms of impairments, there has been a significant requirement to have a gender

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sensitive law in India along with the need to introduce some fundamental amendments and
acts in the existing criminal legal framework.
Legal Frameworks:
The standard of gender equality has been enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its
Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Opportunities, Fundamental Duties and Directive or
Regulatory Principles. Furthermore, it must be noted that the Constitution of India not only
endows equal privileges and rights towards women but further raises the level of
empowerment to the State to adopt relevant measures of constructive marginalization in
favour of women. However, the solitary mention of safeguard of individuals encountering
severe forms of disabilities and impairment is formed in the Regulatory Standards of State
Policy in the fourth chapter of the Constitution (Edwards, 2010). Thus it has been stated that
there has been a significant lack of State assurance and guarantee in order to safeguard or
further prevent any forms of marginalization and discrimination due to factors related to
impairment and sickness. At this juncture, the role and enactment of PWD Act has been
regarded as vital as for the first time in India, there has been a proper acknowledgment of
social as well as economic rights and privileges of disabled persons that have been addressed
constructively by a statute. Though the PWD Act reportedly envelops major areas of concern
related to impairment and disabilities towards women, it must be noted that there are specific
areas which have not being constructively dealt with specifically the areas associated with
utmost prejudice, marginalization and violence encountered by women with disabilities that
draw variances to the circumstances with that of men with similar forms of impairment.
However, year 2007 witnessed another role of the Indian legal system whereby India posed
its consent to the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is referred as the
first globally incorporating initiative on disability privileges and further acknowledges in its
Preamble the rate of severity and hostility encountered by individuals with disabilities

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(Gibson & Mykitiuk, 2012). This Act further distinguishes that degree of marginalization and
prejudices along with violence women with disabilities in India undergo both within the
spheres of domestic and societal domains with immense rate of ill-treatment, exploitation and
aggression. Furthermore, it has been noted that the Article 6 regarded as the Responsibility of
the State Party has evaluated the various forms of discrimination experienced by girls and
women with severe impairments and execute relevant measures in order to ascertain the full
and equal privilege and enjoyment by the women of all human rights as well as fundamental
autonomy and further to enable appropriate growth and development, progress and
empowerment of women belonging to this category (Kayess & French, 2008). However, it
has been noted that as the PWD Act has revealed certain degree of incompetence to entail
major areas associated with the privileges of individuals with disabilities, in particular the
areas safeguarding acts of hostility and exploitation against visually or intellectually impaired
women, following to the ratification of the Convention, India has been facing significant
obligations in initiating the fundamental amendments in the existing forms of disability laws
to conform with these significant compulsions comprised in the Disability Convention
(Perlin, 2008). The CRPD under Article 23 and the CEDAW no 21 has recognized the
significant existence of imposed forms of sterilization against women with disabilities.
As per the reports revealed by WwD India network the country has accepted and
ratified both CEDAW and the United Nations convention on the constitutional rights of
persons with disabilities (CRPD) ( WwD India Network, 2018). Furthermore the Article 41
of the Indian Constitution which forms section of the Directive Principles of State Policy has
explicitly stated the factors of impairment as a serious condition for which the state is to
endeavour in order to provide considerable degree of guidance in certain vital areas which
includes education, work and economic empowerment (WwD India Network, 2018).
However keeping in consideration that in expediency, various forms of prejudice and

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marginalization overlap that includes gender and disability whereby it has formally been
perceived that women with disabilities fail to get the suitable level of recognition under the
prohibited ground of sex stated in Article 15 of the Constitution of India. However it has been
noted that this provision encompasses women and further permits the administrative body of
India to form significant legal provisions for them. At this juncture it must be taken into
consideration that certain areas of the provision related to women with disabilities have
shown immense Incompetence to accomplish this provision barring the recent attention
towards the specific needs in the Criminal Law Act 2013 (Rieser, 2012). However the lack of
recognition of these provisions within the system and in the societal sphere of life with the
absence of significant mentioned within the provisions of law, women with disabilities have
been perceived to be kept outside of the consideration and proper recognition both during acts
of interpretation as well as implementation of the letter of the law (Drew et al., 2011).
However in the data revealed by the WwD article, there have been witnessed wide
gaps and areas of concern among these provisions which have resulted to a lack of
recognition of the legal framework formulated for women with disabilities in India.
Lack of data (CEDAW Gr 9 Session 8)
Evaluation of both the government as well as nongovernmental sources has
maintained utmost silence on areas associated with both impairments as well as gender.
Forms of disability do not figure in the routine method data collection endeavours of the state
such as the sample registration system (SRS), the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
along with the national family health service (NFHS) (WwD India Network, 2018).
Types of prejudice and discrimination (CEDAW Article 2)

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It is significant to recognise that the experience of being impairment have led women
with disabilities towards various acts of prejudice, marginalisation in the realm of culture
ideologies, traditions, politics and economy. The peculiarity of the specific forms of disability
and impairment creates various requirements needs that produce subtle disparities which have
often being unrecognised or unidentified. However the complex areas of concern influencing
women in India with disabilities must be taken into consideration in association to lay distinct
disparities within scheduled forms of disabilities whereby the men with disabilities and
persons who are not suffering from disabilities have been positioned in the matrix of CEDAW
and the CRPD (WwD India Network, 2018). However theorists have demonstrated that at the
level of regulations and policies WwDs have been persistently being neglected both in the
areas of disability specific and gender centric programs as well as policies. Studies have
revealed that around 4%percent reservation for PWDs in the domains of education and
employment, there has been no significance for this section. Moreover persons with
disabilities act mandates 3% allocation for the person suffering from impairments in all
poverty alleviation programmes whereby there is no proper mention of the allocation for this
population and also there is no segment of women with disabilities in the execution and
planning procedures (WwD India Network, 2018). Though well established stereotypical
theories of asexuality and hypersexuality have post configuration towards the identification
and recognition of disabled bodied individuals, the rate of complexity of visible sexuality has
lost its recognition in the domain of public policy as there has been no vital component upon
women with disabilities such as in the sexual as well as reproductive programs (Higgins,
2010).
Hope for Change- Possible intervention for the issue:
The fundamental principle of gender equality has been enshrined in the Indian
Constitution in its Preamble, Directive Principles and Fundamental Rights. The article

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explicitly review the need for the Indian Legal framework to have fortifying and reinforcing
guidelines in order to bring in line with the global legislations on the privileges and
opportunities of disabled women (Devries et al., 2011). As the nation has ratified the
Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it is required for the Indian legal
framework to conform to the fundamental provisions of the Convention by introducing
significant developments in the current legislative measures and further enacting improved
laws (Higgins, 2010). Thus, India comprising one of the more advanced disability policy
frameworks needs a significant Disability Law based on gender-sensitive approach. Some of
the critical remedial measures merit attention:
There is a significant requisite for the effective enactment of gender-inclusive
disability law in India which needs to be adhered to the requirements of the Convention on
Rights with Disabilities.
The victimized women with Disabilities need to be provided with proper and effective
therapeutic facilities. At critical situations of victim getting pregnant consequent to sexual
assault, efficient therapeutic measures must be offered to the victims (Higgins, 2010).
Women with Disabilities should develop appropriate competencies to access
grievances as well as rectification mechanisms (Saikia et al., 2016). However, areas revealing
lack of effective and accessible criticism, increase of the penalty for sexual violence will have
no substantive consequences.
The Indian Legal Framework must adhere to a standardized method for enquiry and
investigation as well as medical examination adopted by the analytical and exploratory
agencies while enquiring cases of sexual assault or physical abuse. However these
procedures must further be formulated on the basis of definite requirements and needs of
women with disabilities at each stage of the inquiry (Price, 2011).

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Studies have revealed the lack of consolidation figures with regard to the hostility and
aggression against women with disabilities. Furthermore, with the registration of such cases,
the documentation and witness of the violence posed against women with impairment must
further be recorded as sub-category like the cases of violence against women belonging to
scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other marginalized sections (Bartlett, 2012).
Furthermore, proper training, development of awareness and sensitization of police
department, judiciary along with medical experts in areas of concerning women suffering
from disabilities specifically the aggression and hostility they have been encountering must
be made mandatory (Badjena, 2014).
Certain areas of development must be implemented by evaluating and dogmatic
authority requires to be effectively developed at the state and district level comprising of
activists as well as consultants belonging to the district for periodic assessment and
evaluation of these institution by the authority developed must be obligatory.
Obligatory or non-consensual sterilization must further be effectively criminalized
whereby essential legislation must be executed in order to explicitly elucidate the legal areas
of concerns developing from sterilization. Furthermore, such interfering executions result to
the breaching of the authorities and privileges to life as well as physical integrity.
Areas whereby women and girls with severe impairment generally fail to have
effective incorporation into the programs as well as policy legislatures but however can be
integrated by incorporating various thematic areas by ascertaining the appropriate sensitivity
of women with impairment into the United Nations Women along with subsequent
resolutions and further by involving women with disabilities in effective discourse of rural
and indigenous women that is regarded as an essential idea of the United Nation commission
on the Status of Women in its 56th Session. Furthermore, combating the high rate of violence

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and aggression against women, which both encompass the authorization of the Special
Rapporteur on the Violence against Women as well as the United Nations General Assembly
Resolution (Badjena, 2014).
Literature Gap:
In order to conduct the present research, a range of literary articles, newspaper
journals, books and reports have been significantly evaluated and explicitly observed in order
to comprehend the understanding of the pertaining issues. However, it is significant to note
that this results to the recognition of the literature gap. Furthermore it has been observed that
major section of the previous investigation was concerned regarding the past research has
been concerned about women’s movement and issues related to dowry, feticide and domestic
violence against women as a whole. However, shedding light on the violence and aggression
towards women with disabilities specifically in developing states of India has not been
executed. Thus the reliability of the research is debatable in absence of primary data and
information.
Summary:
The erroneous assumption that women with impairment are perceived as asexual has
not freed them from the hostile acts of sexual abuse and violence. For nearly three decades,
groups of feminists along with disability supporters have been produced significant
knowledge and awareness regarding public awareness and perceptions against physical and
sexual abuse. This paper has explicitly observed the accessible understanding and
information on the degree of perceptions, causes and implications of violence and aggression
against women with disabilities when both gender and disability have intersect in order to
exacerbate the degree of hostility and violence and has further been evaluated that violence,
assault or abuse have their incidence in domestic sphere, within the communal arena and is

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further perpetuated by the State itself. Sufficient research has been conducted in order to
evaluate the degree of impact of the various and overlapping facets of the lives of women
along with the impact of such compound identities on the atrocities and aggression women
with impairments encounter finding that violence must be focused through the means of a
multi-faceted responsiveness towards acts or prejudice and discrimination. Hence, it is
significant to pay attention to the women’s rights community and the State to perform with
the disabled women category in order to ensure that acts of violence against disabled women
must be ended.

15DISABILITY AND INCLUSION STUDIES
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