Disability and the millennium development goals: A missing link

Abstract

The objective of this article is to locate disability issues within the discourse of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The idea is to question the failure of the goals addressing disability. MDGs cannot work as a universal remedy. It is critical to foreground the meaning of disability and underscore the reasons for the disabled people's absence from the agenda of the MDGs. Further, I discuss the ways in which state policy has addressed 'disability' in a globalising context. Finally, I outline the paradox of identity politics and its nuances based upon an understanding of the issues and related questions from my own experiences as a disabled Indian woman, having to contend with the existential realities of a visible physical disability. The plea is to expand the democratic space to ensure that the rights and needs of disabled people within the MDGs discourse are given due consideration.