Chennai: Is the system, in the name of helping the disabled, harming them? A talk by a disability activist on Tuesday provoked the thought.
Vaishnavi Jayakumar, co-founder of The Banyan, cited the case of a 40-year-old disability rights advocate to drive home the point. While opening a bank account, he was told he could have a joint account and only his guardian would have the right to sign cheques. " He has to go through the humiliation of sharing an account and somebody else has to sign for him because he has speech disability," said Vaishnavi. "Do people think he is intellectually disabled so he can't handle his money?"
It is this kind of protection by the state and the legal system that is shaking the disabled, she said. Calling the system intrusive because of its overprotective nature, the activist said it was important to delink mental illness and assumptions.