Making community inclusion work for persons with disabilities: drawing lessons from the field

With the ratification of the United Nations Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), questions of community inclusion of persons with disabilities have gained considerable attention. While the principles of inclusion have been clearly defined through the CRPD, the dearth of critical assessment of ongoing processes and outcomes of community-based inclusive development prevents a more comprehensive understanding of the present achievements and emerging challenges. This becomes ever more pertinent in developing countries that are rapidly adopting neoliberal development policies, which have reconfigured the content of citizenship, particularly in India where disability has been conventionally framed through a medical-welfare model, and where religious beliefs detract from praxis based on rights. Using case studies of existing inclusive practices in primary education and employment sectors in India, the article argues that such practices reveal dissonance in the conceptions of disability inclusion and community development.