Disability Studies: Global Trajectories and the Indian Context by Professor Nilika Mehrotra

To cite this work: Mehrotra, Nilika (2025). Disability Studies: Global Trajectories and the Indian Context. Disability Dialogues. Sheffield: iHuman, University of Sheffield. 

Nilika Mehrotra is a social anthropologist teaching at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She is also editor of the Journal Indian Anthropologist. She has been a Fulbright Senior Researcher at University of California, Berkeley, USA (2013-2014). She has authored the book Disability, Gender and State Policy: Exploring Margins (2013) and edited Disability Studies in India : Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Springer 2020 besides numerous research articles in the areas of Gender, disability and Development studies.

Disability Studies has emerged as an important interdisciplinary field challenging individualized and medicalized understandings of disability. Rather than locating disability within bodily impairment, the field highlights the social, cultural, and political structures that shape disabled people’s lives. While Disability Studies developed earlier in the United States and the United Kingdom, its institutionalization in India reflects a unique combination of social movements, policy reforms, and uneven academic engagements.

In the United States, Disability Studies grew out of dissatisfaction with traditional social science research that tended to treat disability as a personal deficit. Influenced by the civil rights movement, scholars advanced the minority group model, arguing that disability was shaped by discrimination, marginalization, and stigma (Hahn, 1988; Pfeiffer, 1993). This perspective laid the groundwork for an interdisciplinary field that now exists across more than twenty American universities.

In the United Kingdom, Disability Studies emerged from activist-led initiatives rather than academic ones. The publication of the Fundamental Principles of Disability by the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS, 1975) argued that disability is socially produced through environmental and attitudinal barriers. Oliver (1990) later formalized this as the British social model of disability. Although the U.K. remains an intellectual centre for Disability Studies, most programmes remain embedded within traditional departments.

In India, Disability Studies has developed at the intersection of structural inequalities and rights-based activism. Disability is shaped not only by cultural beliefs and stigma but also by religion,caste, gender, poverty, and limited access to education and employment. The disability rights movement—deeply informed by feminist, Dalit, and environmental movements—has been central in shifting public discourse (Mehrotra, 2011). Policy reforms such as the Persons with Disabilities Act (1995), India’s ratification of the UNCRPD (2006), and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016) have expanded the national commitment to inclusion and accessibility (Ghai, 2015). Yet academic institutionalization remains uneven. The findings below are based on a study undertaken to examine the growth of Disability Studies programmes in India (Mehrotra, 2020). Today more than 80 universities have disability studies programmes in India.

Among Indian universities, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) at Mumbai has one of the most structured Disability Studies programmes. The Centre for Disability Studies and Action (DSA) offers postgraduate training integrating theory, fieldwork, and community-based rehabilitation. Students work closely with disability organizations, conduct access audits, and engage with policy advocacy. The institute’s Social Protection Office broadened its focus to include disability, indicating long-standing institutional commitment.

NALSAR University of Law at Hyderabad represents another important site where Disability Studies intersects with legal pedagogy. Its Centre for Disability Studies embeds disability content across foundational law courses and offers a seminar on Comparative Disability Law. The Centre emphasizes legal research, advocacy, and collaboration with NGOs, though representation of disabled students remains limited.

Several universities in Hyderabad have incorporated Disability Studies through disciplinary lenses. MANUU examines literary representations of disability; EFLU uses aesthetic and narrative approaches to teach disability; and the University of Hyderabad integrates disability into sociology and science and technology studies, focusing particularly on technology transfer and disability interventions.

Delhi-based institutions also contribute to the field. Lady Irwin College offers courses on developmental disabilities, while IGNOU’s National Centre for Disability Studies provides rehabilitation-oriented programmes whereas SOITS is running an undergraduate course on Disability Studies. Anita Ghai tried to start Disability Studies at Ambedkar University with a research programme. Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) include disability-related teaching and research through individual faculty initiatives, though neither hosts a dedicated centre.

Nationally, Equal Opportunity Cells mandated by the University Grants Commission have improved accessibility, but infrastructural and administrative gaps persist. Representation of disabled scholars remains limited, and disability awareness across non-specialized departments is uneven. Nevertheless, growing research, activism, and policy support indicate that Disability Studies in India is gradually consolidating as an academic field with significant potential for promoting social justice.

References

Ghai, A. (2015). Rethinking disability in India. Routledge. 

Hahn, H. (1988). The politics of physical differences: Disability and discrimination. Journal of Social Issues, 44(1), 39–47. 

Mehrotra, N. (2011). Disability rights movements in India: Politics and practice. Economic and Political Weekly, 46(6), 65–72. 

Mehrotra, N. (ed) (2020). Disability Studies in India : Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Singapore: Springer. 

Oliver, M. (1990). The politics of disablement. Macmillan. 

Pfeiffer, D. (1993). Understanding disability: From theory to practice. Disability & Society, 8(4),503–513. 

Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation. (1975). Fundamental principles of disability. UPIAS.