Assignment: Question Answer 1 Table of Contents Question 1: Which group is socially excluded and how? .......................................................... 3 Question 2: What are the reasons that these people are socially excluded? .............................. 4 Question 3: What is happening as a result of their social exclusion? ........................................ 6 Question 4: What are the ways we can integrate them in the society? ...................................... 7 References .................................................................................................................................. 8 2 Question 1: Which group is socially excluded and how? This report reflects the social exclusion of the Disabled group of people around the world. The focus has been on India and UK. In both the countries there are substantial numbers of persons with disabilities. Disabilities might occur since birth or they might be acquired in the later stages of life through some accidents or critical diseases. Irrespective of the cause of such disabilities, the social group that consists of the disabled people is exposed to neglect, humiliation and biases in several ways. The disabled people are neglected in the community and also in the professional front. They are not offered employments in all sectors and there are reservations on the part of many of the employers to offer them job opportunities. This neglect leads to loss of employment or not receiving an opportunity of employment at all. This becomes ominous for the disabled person and his family. The disabled person is often the sole bread earner of the family and lack of employment over a long period of time not only drains him emotionally and physically but also puts his family in jeopardy. The situation is similar in both UK and India but in UK the actions taken for social integration of the disabled are much comprehensive and effective. As per the figures of 2012-13, there were around 12.2 million persons with disabilities in the UK that accounts for 1 in 5 persons. It was also learnt that the as per the 2016 reports, the rate of employment of working age disabled persons in UK was 46.5% that amounts to around 4.1 million. This indicates that the remaining 53.5% of the disabled persons remained unemployed due to social exclusion. It also revealed that around 44.3% of the working age disabled persons were not economically active that is a clear indication of social exclusion (Papworth Trust, 2016). According to the report of 2016, there were almost 40-80 million disabled people in India that comprised of 4-8% of the entire population. It is not at par with the Census Report of 2001 3 that estimated of around 2% of the population of India to be in the People With Disabilities (PWD) category. Better methods of calculations and statistics have proved that the actual figures are much larger. But, the majority of the disabled persons in the country suffer from mild-moderate disabilities. It has been observed that disabled people are prone to social exclusions like lack of educational opportunities and unemployment. There has been a sharp decline in the employment rate of the differently abled persons in India from 42.7% in the year 1991 to around 37.6% in the year 2002. Despite a big majority of them being effective for productive work, they are ignored and their employment rate stood at 60% on average (Panda, 2016). Question 2: What are the reasons that these people are socially excluded? The disabled people get denial from getting participated in any normal activities and relationships that are common for normal persons in the society. In different arena like social, political and cultural domains the disabled persons are discriminated. This invariably affects their life and the equity of the entire society. Despite of many legal regulations and laws for the protection of the disabled persons from being excluded from the society there are many places all over the world where the disabled persons are suffering from social exclusion. People with both mental and physical disability are isolated in most cases from the normal course of work and social life. The disabled people are generally not invited in the social events because of the mental models of the individuals who are active members of society. They worry about the inabilities that the disabled persons have in accessing the normal activities that might lead to embarrassments. The employers in most of the cases do not consider the disabled persons to be counted among the valuable human capital. The disabled persons do not get the access to the labor markets. The ways of thinking of the people are the 4 root causes behind the onset of social exclusion of the disabled persons. Social stigma and discriminating mentality in the society has kept the disabled individuals away from leading a normal life in the society. Transport options, educational facilities, employment scenario for disabled people and high rate of discrimination have led them to grow less expectation from the society (Appleton-Dyer & Field, 2014). 5 Question 3: What is happening as a result of their social exclusion? The social exclusion is throwing the disabled people towards the world of darkness where they only suffer from mental trauma and depression. This is impacting their mental stability, social life and equity in society. The quality of their life is also declining. They are not getting employment properly and they are suffering from economic insecurity. The financial crisis is leading towards poverty. They are losing their opportunities in leading a normal life. They could get proper education and remain as social stigma. They have to face many embarrassments in the social events (Coughlan, 2010). The disabled children when grow up tend to lose their opportunities in getting employment. They get rejections from majority employers. They lose confidence and are found to suffer from frustration that ultimately leads to mental depression. One of the most adverse outcomes of the social exclusion of the disabled people is the increasing risk of poverty and economic insecurity of unemployment in the economy. The economic development gets slowed down. The rate of literacy also gets declined (Pineda, 2015). The social exclusion of disabled individuals gives rise to many other serious issues in the society. The normal people behave differently with them. The disabled people do not even get the support of their families in many cases. In the course of normal ongoing employment if any person gets disabled because of any mental or physical illness or because of any workplace accident the employers start to dismiss them and this puts a pressure on the families of the deprived employees (Burchardt, 2003). 6 Question 4: What are the ways we can integrate them in the society? One of the several ways by which the persons with disabilities can be integrated into the society is reforms in policies such that they receive equitable rights in the community and society. The endeavour for inclusion of the disabled people should include multi-sectorial strategies. It is extremely pivotal to address the needs and concerns of the disabled people in the healthcare, education and other sectors. Governments around the world have reservations for the disabled people those are prudent strategies. Along with it, the private sector organizations might be incentivised to hire disabled persons so that the people with disability might have increased employment opportunities and they can live a better life with minimum of social negligence and humiliation. 7 References Appleton-Dyer, D. S., & Field, D. A. (2014, November 20). Understanding the factors that contribute to social exclusion of disabled people. Retrieved from odi.govt: https://www.odi.govt.nz/assets/Guidance-and-Resources-files/Understanding-the-factorsthat-contribute-to-the-exclusion-of-disabled-people-November-2014.pdf Burchardt, T. (2003, November). Being and becoming: Social exclusion and the onset of disability . Retrieved from sticerd.lse.ac: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/CR/CASEreport21.pdf Coughlan, S. (2010, September 1). Disabled are socially excluded says Scope survey. Retrieved from bbc: http://www.bbc.com/news/education-11139534 Panda, R. K. (2016). Socially Exclusion and Inequality: Opportunities in Agenda 2030. Retrieved from Whiteband: http://www.whiteband.org/sites/default/files/Social%20exclusion%20and%20Inequality%20i n%20India%20Report.pdf Papworth Trust. (2016). Disability in the United Kingdom: Facts and Figures. Retrieved from http://www.papworthtrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/Disability%20Facts%20and%20Figures% 202016.pdf Pineda, D. V. (2015, August 10). Poverty, Disability and Social Exclusion2015. Retrieved from worldenabled: http://worldenabled.org/poverty-disability-and-social-exclusion-2/ 8
