Legal Rights of Women with Intellectual Disabilities in India

Legal Rights of Women with Intellectual Disabilities in India (Swapna V Thampi*, MSc, M.Ed, M.A, M.L PGDIHL) Abstract A Person with a Disability means a person with long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which, in interaction with barriers, hinders his or her full and effective participation in society equally with others. Disability in developing countries has a correlation with poverty. Intellectual Sub normality is characterized by sub normal intellectual functioning, deficits in the areas of communication, social skills, self-care and variable capacity for independent living. The most important causes of Intellectual Disability include maternal infections, birth trauma, thyroid deficiency etc. along with genetic causes. Persons with Intellectual disabilities are the worse affected due to their inability to understand, access their basic human rights and even social security and are marginalized. Amongst persons with disabilities, women with Disabilities face more atrocities than their men counterparts because of many social factors like attitude of society towards them, abandonment by families, vulnerability of sexual abuses, social stigma and domestic violence in addition to poverty which affects their rehabilitation and inclusion in the society. Women with Disabilities often have no access to education, rehabilitation including vocational training or employment opportunities. They are often subjected to more ill treatment and suppression due to the reasons of lifelong care they need and considered as a liability to the family and society. The United Nations took the initiative for the protection of women with Mental retardation in the form of a Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded persons in the year 1971. Many countries all over the world passed legislations after the UN initiative for the protection of the Rights of Persons with Mental Retardation. India signed and ratified both CEDAW2 and the United Nations Conventions