Conclusions Drawn
The following conclusions are important for understanding comprehensively the wide range of socio-cultural, legal and political implications that place a burden on the lives of persons with disabilities in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
- Persons with disabilities have few opportunities to enjoy decision making power and are discriminated against mostly by their own family members, followed by the community in which they live and the personnel in the government offices, where they go to access their much needed services. Lack of education and little access to law and their own citizenship rights still remain as challenges to people with disabilities in the state, in spite of 61 years of Indian Independence
- Negative attitudes of family members, society and government toward persons with disabilities remain entrenched hence the denial of human rights, particularly the denial of equal opportunities to persons with disabilities in the areas of education, employment, communication, marriage, transport, decision making, etc.
- In spite of the various poverty alleviation schemes conceived by both the Government of India and Government of Andhra Pradesh, the houses in which persons with disabilities live, particularly in semi-urban and urban regions, reflects a failure to recognize the link of persons with disabilities with poverty, hence the deplorable living conditions of persons with disabilities in low income groups
- Though the persons with disabilities live in rural, Semi-urban and urban regions, the question of their human dignity remains a challenge across the board. If the people in rural areas face more discrimination and inequality in their families and less autonomy, those who live urban areas experience the same but more with respect to society, government and their physical environment.
- Women with disabilities face multiple forms of discrimination, that of being women, having a disability, being poor, and belonging to lower caste hence their experience of even lower autonomy, less dignity and equality in their families as well as in society at large and in their treatment by government.
- Though the domestic legislation and signing and ratifying the UN Treaties, particularly the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which India has both signed and ratified, appears to have given hope for a positive change in the lives of persons with disabilities, the public agencies that are responsible for bringing in this change have been clearly unable or unwilling to tackle the responsibility of implementing these treaties.
- In spite of the lofty claims made by both the Government of India and Government of Andhra Pradesh on the inclusion of persons with disabilities, the reality remains that the very principles of development are yet to be inclusive in their design and operationalization both in terms of policy and implementation.
- Individual Human Rights Monitoring for persons with disabilities will forever remain a tool for bringing accountability to persons with disabilities toward society, and for the family, society and State toward persons with disabilities.