Violence Against Women with Disabilities in India: A Literature Review

Running head: DISABILITY AND INCLUSION STUDIES
DISABILITY AND INCLUSION STUDIES
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1DISABILITY AND INCLUSION STUDIES
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: