China's disabled.

Gao Ya Li is one of the most inspiring women I have met. When her son was born with CP some 15 years ago, there was absolutely nowhere she could turn to for support. Her husband blamed her for her son's condition and left her. Doctors she went to in Shanghai told her to simply give up on her son. In 1990, when her son was first diagnosed, the only schools for disabled children in Shanghai were government run - there were hardly one or two in a city with a disabled population of some 940,000 - and poorly managed. When you or I would have given up, Gao decided to start her own school in the face of hostility from her own family, her neighbours and unsurprisingly, from the local government as well.

Today, Gao's school, in Shanghai's Gubei district, is possibly Shanghai's best school for kids with disabilities. Social workers and students from Australia, the UK and the US I met when I visited her school were so impressed by what she has been able to achieve in the face of so much resistance, and in a society that still gives its disabled members little or no hope. Even in Shanghai, regarded as one of the best cities to live in for people with disabilities in terms of access and attitudes, I can only remember one or two occasions in the last six month when I actually saw a person with disabilities out in public. Parents of kids enrolled in Gao's school told me that that's the hardest part - that it's the negativity and hostility, not the lack of resources, that gets them down the most. For how far China has come in so many ways, this is one place where its society still has far to go.





Kids going through rehabiliation at Gao's school. Photograph by the talented Lingbing Hang.


Another thing that's disconcerting. India is somewhat similar in the way society looks at PWDs. Social workers in India, like their counterparts in China, say the resignation and hopelessness is so ingrained in attitudes that it's hard to overcome. One observation - one sees far more PWDs out in public in India, which gives you some optimism, as that's the only way attitudes begin to change. But India's school still lag far behind China's.

Here's where the countries differ in the way they handle social problems. It was only 10 years ago that the Chinese government even came to accept a notion of disabled rights - India was far ahead back then. But once they did, the Chinese government put their minds to improving things in a significant way. In 5 years, Sunshine homes - government run schools for disabled children - were established in every district in Shanghai. I visited a Sunshine home, and for a government run school, the facilities, and more importantly the care the kids received, were so impressive - far better than what a kid would receive even in a privately run school for disabled kids in India. In the last 10 years, what has the Indian government done to improve education for the disabled? Close to n0thing at all.

Here is a link to my piece in The Hindu's Sunday Magazine about the challenges facing China's disabled community.