Issues of gender and disability in the Field of Social Work
Issues of gender and disability are briefly discussed in this post. Social workers are taught the skills necessary to deal with the difficulties posed by issues of gender and disability in their job.
The reader will:
- Gain understanding of the gender and disability issues;
- Discover strategies social workers can use to address the gender and disability issues at the end of this post.
Contents
- Introduction
- Women and Girls with Disabilities
- Issues of Gender for Girls with Disabilities
Introduction
Around 650 million individuals, or 10% of the global population, live with disabilities, and they regularly face a variety of social and physical barriers. They are typically among those in society who are most marginalised and frequently lack the opportunities enjoyed by the majority of people. Race, age, language, nationality, culture, religion, and handicap are only a few examples of the hurdles that prevent women from achieving complete equality and success. Women and girls with disabilities experience double discrimination, first as women and then as people with disabilities, as long as certain cultural, legal, and institutional barriers remain in place.
Women and Girls with Disabilities
According to the 2011 World Report on Disability, there are 19.2% more women than males who are disabled than there are. For all adults with impairments, the global literacy rate is only 3%, and for women with disabilities, it is only 1%. Men with impairments are almost twice as likely to be employed as women with disabilities, despite the fact that all people with disabilities encounter impediments to employment.
Women and girls with disabilities are more likely than women and girls without disabilities to encounter gender-based violence, sexual assault, neglect, mistreatment, and exploitation. Compared to non-disabled women, women with disabilities are three times more likely to face gender-based violence.
The most at-risk and disenfranchised groups in society are girls and women of all ages who have any kind of handicap. Therefore, it is necessary to consider and address their concerns in all policy development and programming. At all levels, special initiatives are required to fully incorporate them into the development process. Women with disabilities are frequently invisible among those advocating for women's empowerment, gender equality, and the rights of people with disabilities.
It is essential to strengthen the inclusion of women with disabilities in the development framework for 2015 and beyond. Women and girls with disabilities are covered by all human rights laws and development criteria, but they have not always had full access to those rights on an equal footing with others. Women and girls with disabilities have been invisible for far too long, both to those who support women's rights and those who support disability rights, which has made them more vulnerable. The "double discrimination," which encompasses gender-based violence, abuse, and marginalisation, is likely to be experienced by women and girls with disabilities. As a result, even when compared to men and women without disabilities, women with disabilities frequently face additional disadvantages. The following are some significant contexts in which women and girls experience gender-based violence.
Education
Women are given less importance in the important fields of education in the heavily male-dominated Indian society. Additionally, the educational institutions lack the proper infrastructure needed to integrate youngsters into the regular education system. Basic amenities including accessible restrooms, ramps, handrails, and teaching and learning aids are lacking in educational buildings. Disability-related social exclusion occurs in educational institutions without this barrier-free environment. In addition, girls are more impacted than men with impairments. Less than 5% of children and young people with disabilities have access to education and training, and girls and young women face significant barriers to participating in social life and development, the Secretary General reported in the report on the implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled. Additionally, it should be noted that cultural restrictions prioritise boys over girls. In this situation, boys are given such precedence while girls with disabilities are denied educational possibilities. Due to a shortage of barrier-free restroom facilities in schools, school dropout rates among disabled girls are greater than those among males.
Employment and paid work
"In spite of the fact that people with disabilities generally have trouble finding employment, men with disabilities are nearly twice as likely to hold down a job than women with disabilities. Women with disabilities frequently encounter unequal hiring and promotion standards, unequal access to education and retraining, unequal access to credit and other productive resources, unequal pay for equal work, occupational segregation, and they infrequently participate in economic decision-making when they are employed "(2003) Arthur O'Reilly Employees frequently do not encourage people with impairments to participate in certain duties. Their abilities are undervalued, and they are not given the chance to complete specific duties. Women are given less priority than males with disabilities in this group.
Health
More than 30 women suffer major injuries or disabilities due to labor-related activities every minute, according to a World Bank analysis, yet most of these women go unrecognised. All-age women with impairments frequently struggle to physically access healthcare services. While there is little awareness of the wide range of risks to mental health to which women are disproportionately susceptible as a result of gender discrimination, violence, poverty, armed conflict, dislocation, and other forms of social deprivation, women with mental disabilities are particularly vulnerable. Women have greater health needs than males have. The male-dominated nature of Indian society prevents women from receiving equitable access to healthcare. When it comes to getting access to healthcare, men with impairments are given more priority than women with disabilities.
Housing
Access to suitable housing and services is severely hampered for women with impairments. Due to their handicapping conditions, the majority of disabled women choose not to get married. They remain in their parents' home. After the passing of the parents, the non-disabled people take over the households and treat those with disabilities unfairly. Therefore, housing presents a greater obstacle to women with impairments than to males. Women are compelled to enter institutions due to the dangers of abuse and violence. Because of this, more women than males with disabilities are institutionalised. Another obstacle for people with impairments is the absence of barrier-free infrastructure in habitations, which affects disabled women more than disabled men.
Issues of Gender for Girls with Disabilities
The triple discrimination of being a woman, a person with a disability, and a poor person affects the majority of women with disabilities in India. They are not only a socially invisible group, but their situation is also worse than that of other non-disabled women and men with disabilities. Women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to abuse and violence since they are helpless, alone, and anonymous.
Women with disabilities are seen as a financial burden and social liability by their families, they are denied opportunities to move outside the home and access to education, they are perceived as asexual, helpless, and dependent, they are isolated and neglected with no home or a normal life, and there is no specific disability law that specifically mentions women as a category that requires special attention, according to the XI Plan.
It is a known truth in India that the most marginalised populations in developing nations are frequently women and girls with disabilities. They are forced to deal with greater extremes of poverty because they experience discrimination based on both their gender and their status as people with disabilities. When it comes to meeting their fundamental requirements, such as housing, food, clean water, sanitation, health care, education, and employment prospects, they could experience worsened issues. In general, judgments involving women with impairments, as well as decisions about them, are frequently avoided.
The purpose of development programmes is to assist and empower the most marginalised and underprivileged individuals. Women and girls with disabilities are notably underrepresented in these programmes, whether as active participants or as decision-makers. For instance, poor women's microcredit programmes and maternity health initiatives frequently fail to include women with disabilities.
According to the UN, women report more disabilities than men do. In real words, this means that impoverished women with disabilities are more likely to experience poverty and various forms of discrimination. In comparison to the overall literacy rate of people with disabilities, which is around 3 percent, the estimated literacy rate for women with disabilities is 1%. Compared to 50% of men with disabilities, just 25% of women with disabilities globally are employed.
The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Impairments (UNCRPD) preamble indicates that women and girls who have disabilities frequently run a higher risk of being violently attacked. According to a poll conducted in Orissa, India, every woman and girl with a handicap had experienced domestic violence, while 6 percent of women with disabilities were forcibly sterilised and 25% of women and girls with learning disabilities had been sexually assaulted. On the status of women and girls with impairments, there are, however, no reliable statistics available. The WHO Resolution on "Disability, including prevention, management and rehabilitation" asks the WHO and its member nations to gather statistics on disability in various sectors that are broken down by gender. A lack of access to quality prenatal care causes disabilities and long-term difficulties for 20 million women per year, according to the UNFPA Report 2003.
Multiple forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities make it less likely for them to access services, receive an education, find jobs, and take part in decision-making processes. Their poverty and reliance on others may be made worse by this disenfranchisement. The independence and dignity of people with disabilities are strengthened through development initiatives that increase access to resources and services, and those responsible for their care are freed up to do other things. Often, girls are pulled out of school to help support their families.
Improved maternal healthcare provided to expectant mothers will lower the number of women who experience disabilities after giving birth and lower the financial costs of disability in both the women giving birth and the decreased number of children who experience disabilities as a result of abnormal prenatal or perinatal events. (2002) UNICEF
In 1995, the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing led to the creation of the Platform of Action, which calls on governments and members of civil society to include women with disabilities in programme design and policy choices. The UNCRPD calls on nations to create policies that take gender mainstreaming into account in its article 6 on the numerous forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities. By ratifying the UNCRPD and issuing the Guidance Note on Disability and Development, it noted that women and girls with disabilities face a variety of kinds of discrimination and reaffirmed its commitment to advancing gender equality.
Women and girls who have disabilities are not specifically mentioned in MDG objective 3 on gender equality. The targets, meanwhile, are applicable to all women and girls and can only be met by taking into account disabled women and girls, who frequently reside in the poorest areas of society and are more prone than not to experience violence and abuse. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights agreements, and other human rights documents form the foundation of a comprehensive human rights framework that protects the rights of people with disabilities.
The language of the Convention includes multiple allusions to girls, women, and gender issues as well as an item on women with disabilities. Information about the article about women with disabilities is linked in the section below.
Preamble: (p) Concerned about the challenging circumstances that people with disabilities face when they are the targets of multiple or intensified forms of discrimination based on their race, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion, national, ethnic, indigenous or social origin, property, birthplace, age, or other status. (q) Understanding that disabled women and girls are frequently more vulnerable to assault, abuse, neglect, negligent treatment, mistreatment, and exploitation both inside and outside the family. (s) Insisting that all initiatives to support the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by people with disabilities must take gender equality into consideration.
Article 3 – General Principle: The principles of the present Convention shall be: (g) Equality between men and women;
Article 6 – Women with disabilities: 1. States Parties recognize that women and girls with disabilities are subject to multiple discriminations, and in this regard shall take measures to ensure the full and equal enjoyment by them of all their human rights and fundamental freedoms. 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the full development, advancement and empowerment of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the present Convention. Some of the other references to women and gender issues are found in the following articles: Article 8 – Awareness-raising (paragraph b), Article 16 – Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse (paragraphs 1,2,4,5), Article 25 – Health, Article 28 - Adequate standard of living and social protection (paragraph 2b), and Article 34 – Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (paragraph 4).
The gender and disability gap is getting wider despite all the legal protections provided by the Indian Constitution, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Persons with Disabilities Act, and the National Trust Act. To promote an equitable and inclusive order in society, the law needs to be toughened and vigorously enforced. Social workers play a crucial role in mainstreaming and integrating people with disabilities into society on an equal footing. Social workers must act as a bridge, an advocate, and an educator to help avoid gender-based discrimination against people with disabilities in society. Social workers must constantly educate society's citizens about this inclusive growth that promotes equality of access for all.
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