SummaryGlobal estimates suggest that over a billion people
live with a disability that is significant enough to
affect their daily lives. According to the 2011
Indian Census, India alone has about 26.8 million
people with disabilities. Research suggests that
persons with disabilities (PwDs) in India are among
the most neglected, stigmatized, poor and least
educated of the world’s population, and women with
disabilities in India are the most marginalized,
both socially and economically. They bear the triple
burden of being discriminated against through being
‘women’ (socially marginal beings), ‘disabled’
(incapacitated, inefficient and undesirable) and
‘women with disabilities’ (the weakest of the weak),
often becoming socially invisible. Although there
has been a general recognition over the years that
the educational and employment opportunities of PwDs
in India need to be improved, their sexual needs and
aspirations, sexuality concerns and sexual and
reproductive health and rights have been largely
ignored. The objective of this paper is to highlight
the paucity of research on the sexual and
reproductive health concerns of PwDs, particularly
women, in the Indian context using existing
literature on India, and to identify the possible
reasons of this neglect. The study describes the
obstacles faced by PwDs, particularly women, to
acquiring good sexual and reproductive information
and services, based on the results of empirical
studies. Given the lack of research on this in
India, the evidence largely comes from studies
conducted elsewhere in the world. Lack of
information and education about sexual health
concerns, physical and/or infrastructural
inaccessibility, judgemental provider attitudes,
limited provider knowledge about disability issues
and individual factors, including inhibitions about
seeking health care and financial barriers, are
identified as factors inhibiting the sexual and
reproductive rights of people with disabilities in
India.
5. Stressful Life Events And The Risk of Unintended Pregnancy: Implications For Toxic Stress And Reproductive Health Disparities During Adolescence And Young Adulthood
