The Election Commission on Thursday asked political parties to promote inclusivity for people with disabilities, including not using “ableist” terms like dumb (gunga), deaf (behra), lame (langda) in political discourse.
The commission issued an advisory to all political parties to this effect and urged them and their candidates to abide by it in letter and spirit.
“The very foundation of democracy lies in the representation of all communities in the electoral process. Accessible and inclusive elections have been a non-negotiable premise for the Election Commission of India to ensure equal participation of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs),” the ECI said in a statement.
The Commission said that of late it has been made aware of the use of derogatory or offensive language in the political discourse about PwDs.
“Usage of such semantics in speech or campaign by members of any political party or their candidates, can be interpreted as an affront to the PwDs. Common examples of ableist language are words like dumb (gunga), retarded (pagal, sirphira), blind (andha, kana), deaf (behra), lame (langda, lula, apahij) etc. It is necessary to avoid usage of such derogatory language. PwDs have to be accorded justice and respect in political discourse/campaign,” the poll body said.
The guidelines said political parties and their representatives should not use disability or terms referring to disability in the context of human incapacity during any public speech, in their writings or political campaigns and should strictly avoid comments related to disabilities that may be offensive or perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices.
“Any usage of such language, terminology, context, mockery, derogatory references or insult to PwDs ... may attract provisions of Section 92 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016,” it cautioned.
The guidelines further said that political parties “may endeavour” to include more PwDs at the levels of members and workers, review all campaign material, including speeches, social media posts, advertisements and press releases to identify and rectify any instances of ableist language, use rights-based terminologies as mentioned in the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and not incline towards any other terminology.
It also urged them to provide a training module on disability for party workers.
