डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Semester and Year Offered: Semester III or IV

Course Coordinator and Team: Professor Anita Ghai(C) and Mr.Sandeep Singh

Email of course coordinator: anitaghai[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: This course will study the representation of disabled lives in popular media, particularly cinema to: relate to the experiential worlds of people with a range of disabilities, critically evaluate the stereotypes in these representations in cinema, and think about issues and themes critical to disability studies through films.

Course Outcomes:

By the end of this course the students will be able to:

• Identify how“images" of disability represented by the media are deep-rooted in culture and reflective of the way in which society understands disability.
• Understand the lived reality of people with disabilities andthe heterogeneity of disability
• Describe the importance of contexts in the construction of disability, disability and relationships, concerns of embodiment and several other issues arising out of the intersection of Disability Studies and Cinema.

Unit 1: Introduction

The initial interaction will introduce the postgraduates of education to understand the discourse of Disability Studies. It will be taught through cinema. Disability has been visible in cinema but has not been registered as human predicament in education. An attempt shall be made to study the portrayal of characters with disabilities, the importance of contexts in the construction of disability, disability and relationships, concerns of embodiment and several other issues arising out of the intersection of Disability Studies and Cinema.

Unit 2: Childhood and Disability in India

This module explores various aspects of the lived realities of children with disabilities in India. The themes covered include identity, self-concept and disability, children with disabilities and their families, education and health of children with disabilities, representations of children with disabilities in literature and films and others. The aims of the module are to study how disability features in childhood studies and explores the intersection of class, caste and gender alongwith disability in affecting childhood.

Unit 3: Family

This unit will focus on disability and family. It also opens avenues to discuss community and institutionalized care versus the family as the site of care. Disability raises questions about the meaning and purpose of parenthood, the construction of motherhood in the context of disability, the status of people with disabilities within their families, the role of the extended family, the ethics of care and rights to parenthood and family of people with disabilities.

Unit 4: Education

The education of children with disabilities is a major objective of the goal of “Education for All.” The module shall explore seminal debates about special education versus inclusive education and the shifts in these debates in response to changing models of disability as well as disability in higher education in India.

Unit 5: Marriage, Intimacy and Sexuality

This module explores the construction of sexuality in the context of people with disabilities in India as well as relations of intimacy and the institution of marriage within the context of disability. An attempt is made to study how ability intersects with normative heterosexuality to restrict the possibilities of constructing sexual identities of people with disabilities and the ways in which people with disabilities adapt to or subvert dominant discourses of sexuality.

Unit 6: Debates on Euthanasia

This module shall explore the legal and cultural debates on euthanasia in India as well as transnationally. Studies on euthanasia open up debates about the notion of a life that is considered worth living and the manner in which this notion is defined by discourses from various fields including medicine, culture, law, politics, economics and others.

Indicative Reading List:

• Ghai, A. (2001). ‘Marginalization and disability: Experiences from the third world’. In Priestley, M. (ed.) Disability and the Life Course: Global Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 26 – 37.
• Norden, M. F. (1994). Chapter 1: Politics, Movies, and Physical Disability. The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. pp. 1 – 13.
• Dalal, A. and Pande, N. (1999). ‘Cultural Beliefs and Family Care of the Children with
• Disability’.Psychology and Developing Societies, 11(1).pp. 55 – 75.
• Haller, B. (1995).Rethinking models of media representations of disability.Disability
• Studies Quarterly, 15(2). pp. 26 – 30. Ghai, A. (2002). ‘Disabled women: An excluded agenda of Indian feminism’.Hypatia, 17(3).pp. 49 – 66.
• Gupta, A., and Singal, N. (2004). ‘Positive perceptions in parents of children with disabilities’. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, 15(1).pp. 22 – 35.
• Hussain, Y., Atkin, K., &Ahman, W. (2002).South Asian disabled young people and their families. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, Joseph Rowntree Association.
• Mehrotra, N. (2004).‘Women, disability and social support in rural Haryana’.Economic and Political Weekly, 39(52).pp. 5640 – 5644.
• Bhattacharya, T. (2010) ‘Re-examining Issues of Inclusion inEducation’, Economic andPoliticalWeekly.14(16).pp.18–25.
• Ghai, A. (2006). ‘Education in a Globalising Era: Implications for Disabled Girls’.Social Change, 36(3).pp. 161 – 76.
• Ghai, A. (2015). ‘Chapter 4: At the Periphery: Marginalized Disabled Lives’. In Rethinking Disability in India.New Delhi: Routledge. pp. 101 – 165.
• Linton, S. (1998). Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York: NYU Press. Rao, S. (2001). ‘A little inconvenience: Perspectives of Bengali families of children with disabilities on labelling and inclusion. Disability &Society.16(4).pp. 531–48.
• Wolbring G and Ghai Anita (2015) Interrogating the impact of scientific and technological development on disabled children in India and beyond. Disability and the Global South 2(2).pp. 667 – 85.Accessed from https://disabilityglobalsouth.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/dgs-02-02-07.pdf.
• Addlakha, R. (2007). 'How Young People with Disabilities Conceptualise the Body, Sex and Marriage in Urban India: Four case studies.' Sexuality and disability, 25(3). pp. 100-113.
• Ghai, A. (2015). ‘Chapter 4: At the Periphery: Marginalized Disabled Lives’. In Rethinking Disability in India.New Delhi: Routledge. pp. 101 – 165.
• Tarshi.(2010). Sexuality and disability in the Indian context.Working paper. Retrieved from http://www.tarshi.net/downloads/Sexuality_and_Disability_in_the_Indian_Context.pdfLast accessed on March 16th 2017.
• Vaidya, S. (2015).Sex and sexuality.The Tribune. Retrieved from: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/society/sex-and-sexuality/80439.htmlLast accessed on March 16th 2017.
• Addlakha, R. (2007). 'How Young People with Disabilities Conceptualise the Body, Sex and
• Marriage in Urban India: Four case studies.' Sexuality and disability, 25(3). pp. 100-113.
• Ghai, A. (2015). ‘Chapter 4: At the Periphery: Marginalized Disabled Lives’. In Rethinking Disability in India.New Delhi: Routledge. pp. 101 – 165.
• Tarshi.(2010). Sexuality and disability in the Indian context.Working paper. Retrieved from
• http://www.tarshi.net/downloads/Sexuality_and_Disability_in_the_Indian_Context.pdfLast accessed on March 16th 2017.
• Vaidya, S. (2015).Sex and sexuality.The Tribune. Retrieved from: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/society/sex-and-sexuality/80439.htmlLast accessed on March 16th 2017.
• Ghai, A. (2015). Chapter 5: Mystifying Realities: Right to Life. In Rethinking Disability in India.New Delhi: Routledge. pp. 166 – 200.
• Singh, K., andGan, G. L. (1996). An Asian perspective on euthanasia.The Australian Quarterly,
• 68(3).pp. 36 – 47.

Films (tentative list):

• Dosti (1964)
• My Left Foot (1989)
• Koshish(1972)
• Anjali (1990)
• Iqbal (2005)
• Rainman (1988)
• Monica and David (2009)
• Shwaas (2004) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID2NY9icy5w
• Black (2005)
• TarreZamin Par (2007)
• Malik, R. (2014). Sexuality and disability in India.Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qk95L0AkPI
• Sparsh (1980)
• Children of a Lesser God (1986)
• Sixth Happiness (1997)
• Maragrita with a Straw (2014)
• Guzaarish(2010)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Assessment Details