Mohammad Hanief
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities, observed worldwide on December 3, is a reminder of humanity’s shared responsibility to uphold dignity, equality, and opportunity for all. In 2025, the theme – Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress – urges nations to look beyond symbolic gestures and to genuinely integrate disability inclusion into the foundations of development. Social progress cannot be claimed as long as persons with disabilities remain on the margins, unheard and unrecognized.
The observance of this day invites society to reimagine inclusion as more than a policy or a goodwill gesture. It calls for a transformation in how communities value diversity and how institutions design education, employment, healthcare, public transport, and civic life. A disability-inclusive society recognizes that progress is incomplete unless every person can participate fully and independently.
The 2025 theme stresses that inclusion must become central to social development – not an add-on, not welfare-driven, but rights-based and structurally embedded.
Across the globe, persons with disabilities continue to face deep structural barriers: inaccessible infrastructure, limited healthcare, unemployment, lack of social protection, and an absence of meaningful representation in decision-making. Many remain confined to poverty and social isolation because systems fail to support them.
These barriers are not merely physical; they are attitudinal and systemic. The absence of accessible transport, inaccessible education systems, and workplaces unprepared to accommodate diverse needs reveal how society still treats disability as an afterthought rather than a shared responsibility.
While global challenges are undeniable, the lived pain of specially abled persons in Jammu and Kashmir deserves particular attention. The region’s terrain, climate, governance complexities, and infrastructural limitations intensify the struggles faced by persons with disabilities. For many, daily life is a battle against barriers that others do not see.
In remote villages, the absence of accessible roads, ramps, or reliable transport means that individuals often remain confined to their homes. Winters make this confinement even harsher – snowbound roads, frozen pathways, and long power outages leave many cut off from medical care, therapy, education, and social interaction. A trip to the hospital for someone in a wheelchair can become a day-long ordeal, if it’s possible at all. Children with disabilities often experience heartbreaking disruptions in their education. Schools lack accessible classrooms, inclusive teaching methods, or basic assistive devices. Some students are carried by family members to upper floors because buildings have no ramps or elevators – a painful reminder of how society still fails to plan for their presence. Others simply drop out because they cannot navigate the physical and social barriers around them.
In many households, the emotional toll is immense. Parents worry not just about survival, but about dignity. A mother pushing her child’s wheelchair through muddy streets, a father carrying his son on his back to tuition classes, a young girl with hearing impairment struggling because her school has no interpreter – these are everyday realities in Jammu & Kashmir.
The pain is not always visible. It lies in the silence of a talented student who cannot join college because buses are inaccessible, in the frustration of a skilled youth denied employment due to assumptions about capability, and in the loneliness experienced by those whose world shrinks because society does not expand enough to include them.
Employment opportunities remain scarce, and workplaces are rarely equipped for persons with disabilities. Many are forced to remain financially dependent, not due to lack of talent, but due to a lack of accessible and inclusive systems. For families surviving on limited incomes, the cost of assistive devices, therapies, or frequent travel to hospitals outside the region adds crushing financial pressure.
These hardships underline a simple truth: inclusion in Jammu & Kashmir is not just a policy requirement – it is a moral and humanitarian necessity.
Even amid challenges, education remains a beacon of hope. When schools and colleges adopt inclusive practices, they empower youth with disabilities to dream beyond limitations. But meaningful inclusion requires infrastructure that accommodates all learners and teachers trained to understand diverse needs.
Technology, too, has emerged as a lifesaver – from mobility aids to hearing devices and digital learning tools. Yet access to these technologies is uneven due to high costs and limited availability, especially in rural and hilly regions of Jammu & Kashmir. Ensuring equitable access is essential for transforming lives.
Economic empowerment is crucial to restoring dignity. Persons with disabilities in the region often depend on inconsistent financial assistance and scarce job opportunities. Social protection schemes are helpful but insufficient when accessibility barriers remain unaddressed. To build a truly inclusive society, employment spaces must adapt rather than expect individuals to fit into existing systems.
True inclusion means that persons with disabilities participate in decisions that shape their lives. Representation in policymaking, community committees, and local governance strengthens accountability and ensures that disability-related issues are neither overlooked nor misunderstood.
The promise of the 2025 theme can only take shape when disability inclusion becomes a shared priority – in government planning, civil society efforts, community behaviour, and institutional design. Jammu & Kashmir has taken steps toward accessibility, but the transformation must go deeper, faster, and wider.
Every ramp built, every accessible classroom created, every assistive device provided, and every barrier removed carries the potential to change a life. And every act of empathy – a teacher listening, a neighbour helping, a policymaker understanding – can inspire a chain of inclusion.
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is more than an observance; it is a judgement of a society’s values. A truly progressive, compassionate, and stable society is one where no individual is left behind – where disability does not mean exclusion, dependence, or silence.
As the world marks IDPD 2025, the message is clear: social progress is impossible without disability inclusion. The pain, resilience, and aspirations of specially abled persons in Jammu & Kashmir remind us that the path to justice begins with accessibility, respect, and equitable opportunity.
An inclusive world is not just a goal – it is a responsibility. And it starts with acknowledging the struggles, embracing the potential, and building systems where every person, regardless of ability, can live with dignity, pride, and hope.
(The author is a senior analyst)