In GN Saibaba’s death, a sign for disability rights movement to take its struggles beyond inclusion
The criminal justice system’s brutal outlook towards disabled prisoners is reflected in decade-long imprisonment of the wheelchair-bound professor.
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The death of scholar and rights activist GN Saibaba on October 12 underscored India’s failure to meet its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The wheelchair-bound former Delhi University, who had an estimated 90% locomotor disability, died just seven months after being acquitted of terrorism charges for which he had spent a decade in jail.
Article 13 of the United Nations convention, which India ratified in 2008, obligates the state to provide all “procedural and age-appropriate accommodations” to enable persons with disabilities to participate in legal proceedings.
Reasonable accommodation – which is among the convention’s fundamental principles – was not afforded to Saibaba, who had polio. His condition was worsened by the arduous conditions in prison and during his dealings with the police and judiciary over the course of the decade-long case.
“Prison doesn’t have a single ramp for people like me,” he told one interviewer after he was released. “Now my heart is functioning at 55% capacity.” In another interview, he added, “I could not move out of my wheelchair. I could not go to the toilet [on my own], and I could not take a bath.”
Missing numbers
The glaring omission of proportional accommodation in India’s criminal justice system is facilitated by a paucity of data...
