Any handicap was seen as a negative feature of that person. Even in the Indian mythology, handicapped term ‘Differently-abled’ for handicapped people challenges the old concepts. It is argued that it is not biological factors that make somebody handicapped, but the attitude of the society. Brisendine has rightly said: “Handicap lies in the structure of the society, and not in the physical condition of the individual.” All structures including courts were built by the society and all this was done without giving any consideration to the handicapped.
They create obstacles for the handicapped. Thus they are denied opportunities for education and jobs. We have now seen that handicap is something that society has made. It has another aspect also. There is a close relation between handicap and poverty. Children with handicaps are born mainly in families suffering from malnutrition. Lack of proper health of parents, regularly repeated childbirth by the mother, lack of preventive medicines, accidents that happen in crowded homes, etc. are main causes for handicaps. This is the reason for having more handicapped people among the poor than among the rich.
Just like poverty creates handicap, handicap creates poverty. People tend to ostracise handicapped persons and this increases their financial problems. The family of the handicapped also falls into poverty. There is no doubt that the poorest people in India are the handicapped, or, to use a more politically correct language, differently-abled people.
