FACT FINDING REPORT ON RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN KALIYAGANJ AND RAIGANJ, DISTRICT – NORTH DINAJPUR, WEST BENGAL, INDIA
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”) does not provide a definition of disability, but instead provides a broad description intended to be widely inclusive. The CRPD establishes in Article 1 that ‘persons with disabilities’ includes ‘those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others’. This description of disability shifts the focus toward the social and environmental barriers that hinder an individual’s participation in society rather than on the individual’s impairments.
This approach to disability is called the “social model” of disability. The “social model” recognizes that the exclusion of a person with a disability from society is the result of a barrier or hindrance to the individual’s ability to participate fully, rather than the result of the individual’s inherent inability to participate. For example, if a person cannot access a health clinic because of his/her mobility impairment, it is not his/her inability to walk which is the issue, but rather the clinic’s lack of accessibility