By Shruti Pushkarna
The increased discourse on diversity and inclusion has brought another term into common parlance, intersectionality. It refers to the interconnected relationship of social categorisations like gender, race, caste, colour, sexual orientation, disability and so on. Intersectionality is about the different aspects of a person’s identity that make him or her vulnerable to discrimination and oppression. For instance, within disability, women with disabilities are said to be doubly marginalized, because of their gender as well as physical and/or mental limitation.
At the recent Nasscom Global Inclusion Summit in Bengaluru, this term was repeatedly referred to, by DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) experts, corporate honchos, inclusion advocates and activists. I was part of a workshop on Inclusion in Technology Products and Services, where groups of professionals engaged in an activity to understand day-to-day challenges faced by diverse identities. And quite a few participants found it hard to comprehend scenarios where more than one form of diversity added to the complexity of the problem and made it that much more complicated to solve. So, while people may find it easier to talk about transgender and disabled identities separately, their combination becomes convoluted. And the myriad perils in the daily life of a transgender with disability appear overwhelming.
But why am I ranting about intersectionality and complex ostracised identities?
Recently, I woke up to a rather disturbing video shared in multiple WhatsApp groups. It was the video of a man urinating on the face of another man, and the incident took place in Sidhi, Madhya Pradesh. As I scrolled through my messages and Twitter feed, I discovered that the victim was a person with mental illness and a member of a tribal community. He was also poor. This intersectionality certainly made him powerless in many ways, compared to the perpetrator.
As one tweet indicated, the heinous act was carried out by a representative of the ruling party’s MLA in reaction to the tribal labourer’s demand for wages. Another layer of power politics in the societal hierarchy.
https://twitter.com/KashifKakvi/status/1676211020522741760
Thanks to social media, the viral video circulated at light speed, and several reactions poured in, condemning the monstrosity of Pravesh Shukla. Exasperated with the imagery of gross inhumanity, I eagerly awaited news reports highlighting the crime.
News media couldn’t ignore the story. Several headlines cited the brutal act, labeling it shameful and outrageous. And Shukla was soon arrested. A crime was committed, someone recorded and released it to the public. A hue and cry ensued. The offender was caught.
Seems right, doesn’t it? Except it isn’t. The media and political narrative around the incident stripped away the intersectional identity of the victim. What was emphasised in the reportage was his tribal identity juxtaposed with the political allegiance of the culprit. Apart from The Print which merely stated, ‘mentally ill tribal’, I didn’t find any reporting mentioning disability and the stigma experienced by lower caste poverty-stricken persons with disability. There was no mention of how disability often becomes the grounds for abuse because their existence is seen as a burden on the ableist society.
It was far more sensational to focus on the tribal identity which ignited a debate between the ruling party, opposition, and activists. Especially with the Madhya Pradesh elections coming up later this year. The conversation shifted from the victim who is mentally ill and deprived in more ways than one, to vote bank politics and hypocritical hurls between power-hungry leaders.
Congress Leader Kamal Nath hailed his party as the Scheduled Tribes’ messiah,
आज मेरा मन मध्य प्रदेश के आदिवासी भाई बहनों के अपमान की घटनाओं से बहुत दुखी है। सीधी जिले में एक आदिवासी युवक के ऊपर भाजपा नेता के पेशाब करने का वीडियो देखकर रूह कांप जाती है। क्या सत्ता का नशा इस कदर भारतीय जनता पार्टी के नेताओं पर चढ़ गया है कि वे इंसान को इंसान नहीं समझ रहे।… pic.twitter.com/JWq84p67Ol
— Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) July 5, 2023
Protesting activists rallied support for Schedules Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), demanding action against the crime,
मध्यप्रदेश में गरीब आदिवासी व्यक्ति पर पेशाब करने वाले भाजपा के युवा नेता प्रवेश शुक्ला की यह शरारत और उद्दंडता असहनीय है। आदिवासियों के प्रति बीजेपी का यह असली चेहरा है। मप्र प्रशासन प्रवेश शुक्ला के विरूद्ध एससी एसटी एक्ट के तहत कड़ी कार्यवाही करें। #ArrestPraveshShukla pic.twitter.com/Yd95jIak1i
— Hansraj Meena (@HansrajMeena) July 4, 2023
In response, Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan invoked National Security Act against the accused and resorted to dramatic antics, washing the victim’s feet while making tall claims of respect for every citizen.
यह वीडियो मैं आपके साथ इसलिए साझा कर रहा हूँ कि सब समझ लें कि मध्यप्रदेश में शिवराज सिंह चौहान है, तो जनता भगवान है।
किसी के साथ भी अत्याचार बर्दाश्त नहीं किया जायेगा। राज्य के हर नागरिक का सम्मान मेरा सम्मान है। pic.twitter.com/vCuniVJyP0
— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) July 6, 2023
Both national and international media accentuated caste politics in India, specifically underlining the 1.53 crore underserved tribals of Madhya Pradesh and the 82 odd assembly seats reserved for SCs and STs.
While this is an equally pertinent issue which requires media and political attention, the layers of marginalisation didn’t seem to attract any prominent response from either group. Disability like always took a backseat, once again only confined to raging discussions among the disability rights advocates.
I guess calling them ‘divyang’ absolves humanity of all crimes.
So why are we publishing this column on an A&M site? Well, we strongly feel that the media can dramatically transform the world of persons with disabilities. And this series can help bring forth issues that the media must champion to create a truly inclusive and accessible India. To write this column, we invited Shruti Pushkarna, a former journalist who is now a disability inclusion advocate based in New Delhi. Her views here are personal. To access the archives of her 75-odd columns, please visit: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/ columns/shruti-pushkarna/
If you have a view on the issues raise or would like to align with MxMIndia on this cause, write to us at editor [at] mxmindia.com.