Soldiering on: The Remarkable Resilience of India's Disabled Soldiers

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Article 14 of the Indian Constitution states that 'the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India'. The right to equality under the Indian Constitution has two facets - formal equality and substantive equality. While formal equality means that every person, irrespective of their attributes must be treated equally and must not be discriminated against; substantive equality is aimed at producing equality of outcomes through different modes of affirmative action. The principle of reasonable accommodation is one of the means for achieving substantive equality, pursuant to which disabled individuals must be reasonably accommodated based on their individual capacities. Disability, as a social construct, precedes the medical condition of an individual. The sense of disability is introduced because of the absence of access to facilities..."

So said the Supreme Court of India in Civil Appeal 6924 of 2021 titled Ravinder Kumar Dhariwal Vs Union of India decided on 17-12-2021. The judgment cited another passage from yet another decision earlier that year in Civil Appeal 273 of 2021 titled Vikash Kumar Vs Union Public Service Commission decided on 11-02-2021, in which the following had been observed:

"... The principle of reasonable accommodation acknowledges that if disability as a social construct has to be remedied, conditions have to be affirmatively created for facilitating the development of the disabled. Reasonable accommodation is founded in the norm of inclusion. Exclusion results in the negation of individual dignity and worth or they can choose the route of reasonable accommodation, where each individuals' dignity and worth is respected. Under this route, the powerful and the majority adapt their own rules and practices, within the limits of reason and short of undue hardship, to permit realization of these ends..."

Have the words of the wise or the words of the experts through the ages, or reemphasis by the highest Court of the land, moved us into action? Unfortunately, I will have to answer this in the negative.