Towards the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007 -2012), India catered to about 20 per cent of those in the age group 17 to 24 years. However, to achieve the threshold level of about 30 per cent by 2020, and address concerns that perpetuate inequalities in opportunities to higher education, the Government of India (GoI) formulated positive…

The Central and State governments in India have formulated programs and policies over the years for children with disabilities in order to help them to enter mainstream society. However, despite these policies, children with disabilities are amongst the most disadvantaged in terms of access to schooling and completion of elementary education, as…

The 12th Plan highlighted Equity, Access & Excellence as the tripod of India's education policy. The RTE Act 2009 has ensured a high level of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). However, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) present a dismal picture of the outcome dimensions of our schooling system. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)…

In any sociocultural context, efforts to promote inclusive education may evoke trajectories of change that are as unpredictable as they are inexhaustible, stimulating the production of a range of disability subjectivities, performances, and constructions. This article unearths such local constructions by focusing on the experiences of…

Existing historical understandings of disability are dominated by European and American experience and tend to assume Judeo-Christian ideas of stigma and exclusion are universal norms. This paper emphasises the unique experience of disability in India and the role of poverty, gender, caste and community in compounding the marginalisation felt by…

Inclusive education is a practice of teaching handicapped children in regular classrooms with non-handicapped children to the fullest extent possible; such children may have orthopedic, intellectual, emotional, or visual difficulties or handicaps associated with hearing or learning. In India there are constitutional provisions for Inclusive…

Despite government efforts to provide services for children with disabilities in line with recommendations from international aid agencies, the 2003 Census of Individuals with Disabilities found that over 90% remain unserved. This paper identifies some of the limitations of these efforts in the context of the census findings, with particular…

This paper quotes the qualitative data from one author's recent research (Feng, 2006, 2007) in China and the other author's ongoing PhD research in India. Both studies used multi-methods of data collection in mainstream school settings. This paper discusses the relatively under-researched topic of "quiet disaffection" of pupils with…

Children with disabilities are a minority that are not prioritised in the context of education programmes in India, although they are often found in many marginalised groups that are catered for if non-disabled, for example, girls, scheduled tribe, scheduled caste, and other backward caste children. Inclusive education may be a way of merging…