The National Convention on Women in India was organised on 8th to 10th March, 2025 at OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana. On the second day, a dedicated panel discussion on Gender and Disability was held to explore the complex and often overlooked intersections between gender and disability. This session, titled Gender and Disability, took place on Sunday, 9 March, 2025 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Ms. Abhipsa Upasana Dash, Lecturer at Jindal Global Law School, was the presenter, and the session was moderated by Professor (Dr.) Arpita Gupta, Dean of Research at O.P. Jindal Global University. The speakers were Professor (Dr.) Renu Addlakha, Professor at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies; Dr. Ritu Juneja, Director at Tamana; Ms. Nidhi Ashok Goyal, Founder and Executive Director at Rising Flame; and Ms. Shaloo Sharma, Founder at Evoluer Solutions.
A key intervention during the panel came from Nidhi Goyal who spoke powerfully about the persistent invisibility of women with disabilities in conversations about gender equality, leadership, and legal inclusion. Her contribution underscored the urgency of shifting away from outdated frameworks of disability and embracing a rights-based approach to disability justice.
She noted that the dominant frameworks for understanding disability in India remain rooted in the medical model of disability, where disability is seen as a deficit that needs to be ‘fixed.’ Similarly, she critiqued the charity model of disability, which positions disabled individuals as passive recipients of care and pity. This, she emphasised, perpetuates the invisibility of disabled people, especially women with disabilities, across families, social spaces, policy-making, and data collection.
Nidhi highlighted how this invisibility begins at birth and continues throughout the life cycle of disabled women. She pointed out that families often conceal the existence of disabled girls and women within households, depriving them of opportunities for education, social participation, and personal growth. This not only deprives disabled women of social inclusion but also embeds a deep sense of invisibility and exclusion within the family structure itself.
This pervasive invisibility also extends to data and legal frameworks. Citing census records as a pertinent example, Nidhi explained how families often underreport the presence of disabled individuals within their households. This misrepresentation contributes to inaccurate data, further erasing disabled women from official records and policy formulations. Similarly, she critiqued legal frameworks such as guardianship laws, which continue to undermine the agency and decision-making power of persons with disabilities, reinforcing their exclusion from leadership and public participation.
A critical point made by Nidhi was that achieving full rights and inclusion for women with disabilities requires a transformation in the legal ecosystem. She stressed that legal change cannot simply be limited to implementing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWD) 2016. Instead, she emphasized the need to ensure that all laws, across sectors, comply with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). In her words, “If you want women with disabilities to realise their full rights, we cannot only look at the RPWD Act; we have to look at multiple laws — in fact, the entire legal ecosystem needs to be compliant with the UNCRPD.”
The panel on Gender and Disability at the National Convention on Women in India highlighted the critical need for dismantling the dominant medical and charity models of disability and embracing a rights-based approach that centres the agency, visibility, and leadership of women with disabilities. Nidhi Goyal’s intervention provided a stark and necessary reminder that inclusion is not simply about representation but about enabling disabled women to exercise decision-making power across social, legal, and political spaces.