A friend remarked, “Literacy is not a question of right. It is a fact.” It would have been a perfect statement if only it were true. As citizens of India, we cannot assume that rights, as stated in the Constitution, have any relationship with factual, real experiences. Neither can we assume that the vast majority of those who have easy access to their rights care an iota about others who are deprived or disadvantaged. We can assume, however, pricks of conscience in the face of social inequalities resulting in sizeable doses of rhetoric and very little action. Is this an unfair stance?

I leave the reader to read the story and make a judgment.

January 7, 2004: As I read the newspaper, my attention was riveted to a photograph of smiling, exuberant students waving a banner with the words “With Love from India”. These young ambassadors were embarking on an amazing journey. They were going to board a train to Delhi and then on to Pakistan to sow the seeds of a relationship with their peer group, based on trust, respect and understanding. The team included boys and girls from senior classes from forty-six city schools. They were a mixed bunch of youngsters with varying languages, religions and backgrounds. The organizers had reached out to the student community and they had all responded to a call for applications with criteria clearly spelt out.

Shyamal also applied. He is a bona fide student from a bona fide school. He is healthy. He is academically above average, speaks with eloquence, is well-mannered and well-groomed, sings tunefully, acts as “MC” for school activities and has a sense of humour. He therefore, appeared to meet the overt, explicit criteria for applicants, as set out in the newspaper insert.

Shyamal, however, did not make it for the trip. No explanation was given for his exclusion, but it seemed obvious he had not met an unstated, but critical criterion. Applicants had to be able-bodied with no perceptible disabilities. Shyamal has paraplegia and uses a self-propelled wheelchair, but needs assistance on uneven surfaces and steps, and minimal help in the toilet.

Masks of charity

The reader may opine that this was sufficient reason for excluding him. After all, who would look after his special needs? My answer is this. I counted seventeen seemingly strong, healthy young men in the photograph for whom a ten-minute briefing on Shyamal’s care requirements would have sufficed.

With the collective will and a small amount of physical effort of these young people and the male teachers, the problem of assistance and physical access would have been resolved, the barriers would have been skirted with ease. Even if this were to be a difficult option, the organizers could have asked for advice from Shyamal and his school authorities. If a meeting was not possible, what about a telephone call? Or request the school to provide an escort? After all, there were ten teachers in the group and one of them could have been from Shyamal’s school. Perhaps none of these could have solved the difficulties, but at least an effort would have been made and Shyamal would have had the satisfaction of knowing that the question of including him had at least been honestly addressed and considered.

Shyamal has the same rights as his able-bodied peers but the reality denies him access to them. The fact is, although physical barriers are what are visible, the attitudinal barriers segregate and exclude. We hide prejudices and cowardice behind masks of charity and banal statements of intent. We refer to those we want to exclude as “special” or “children of a lesser god” or “children of a greater god”, conveniently forgetting that in god’s eyes, all human beings are equal and there is no lesser or greater god. We plead ignorance or inability as the rationale for inaction.

Including Shyamal in the delegation would have no significant effect on the outcomes and impact of the “Peace with Pakistan” visit. It would have nurtured the pleasure of sharing and caring, and more important, made a tremendously loud statement about the nature of democracy and civil society in India.