Deconstructing the Medical Model of Disability: A Review of Malini Chib's Autobiography One Little Finger
1160 Views4 Pages
1 File ▾
Disability is socially constructed rather than caused by an impairment. This is conveyed again and again by Malini Chib in her autobiography One Little Finger which inspired the 2014 film Margarita with a Straw. The following paper attempts to make a review of the book from a disabled person's perspective. The book narrates how Malini overcame her ...read more
The birth was hugely traumatic, and the pediatrician in charge kept repeating tohimself ‘
it was a mistake – I should have carried out a caesarean… lets see if she survives… I am not sure if she will survive… at the most 72 hours
.’ (Chib 3)Malini says that she did not show any developmental milestones like any normal child. Itwas difficult for her to perform even simple physical activities. She could not speak properly aswell which prompted others to falsely assume that she was intellectually disabled too.According to the social disability theorists, disability is caused not just by a person’s physical impairment but also the general attitude and notion of the public. Ms. Chib drives this point home throughout her autobiography. She describes the insensitivity and callousness of theIndian doctors just because she was devoid of movements and also unable to express herself.Ms. Chib writes about her life in England. She recalls the days she studied at the specialschools there namely Roger Ascham School and Cheyne Walk. She points out the humanitariantreatment and friendly approach she received there. When she was about six years old, her familyreturned to Bombay. As a child, she felt hurt by the kind of negative attitude of others towardsher in India. Malini has devoted many pages for describing her wonderful and loving family. Allher family members have been well-educated with an English background. According to her,family had been a great strength and support to her. We can perceive the warmth of love betweenher and her younger brother Nikhil whom she affectionately calls ‘Nick’. She has stated that her mother Mithu Alur has been a constant support to her. The separation of her parents had causedgreat despair in the young Malini. I personally felt bad while reading about it. It would have beena terrible shock for her. I think her parents should have made a compromise at least for the sakeof her. As a physically disabled child, she had needed the love and care of both her father andmother.The book also traces the origin and development of the Spastics Society under theleadership of Mithu Alur. She has played a pivotal role in creating a social awareness aboutdisability in India. It could be stated that disability studies was introduced in India with theestablishment of the Society for Disability Studies on 1
st
December 1998. But before that, MithuAlur had already started her work in creating awareness about disability. Malini deals with her educational experiences, some of which I can relate to myself. She had most of her education invarious special schools both in England and India. She recalls that it was at Thomas Delaruespecial school that she learned to grow up independently and be responsible.Malini stresses an important point that children with disabilities need to be taught inregular schools. Then only they can develop and improve their abilities. Having studied inspecial schools, she had found it very difficult to acclimatize herself in the company of the‘normal’ students at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. She used to communicate with a devicecalled ‘Canon Communicator’. Physical accessibility was a major problem she had to tackle inthe college. Like her, I too had to overcome many physical barriers in my college. But unlikeher, I had my whole education in regular institutions.Malini points out the apathy and indifference of people towards her and other personswith disabilities. She says that disabled persons are considered as being without any identity.People tend to forget that it is the body of a disabled person that is weak and not his/her mind or individuality. Disabled persons too have feelings, emotions and desires just like others. Malini
narrates the problems she faced as a disabled woman. Disability, like gender, permeates allaspects of culture. It includes “its structuring institutions, cultural practices, political positions,historical communities, and the shared human experience of embodiment” (Garland-Thomson 3).Women are discriminated and suppressed by the patriarchal society.She points out that all of usare disabled in one aspect or another. This reminds one of what the disability theorist TobinSiebers had said. According to him, disability identity has to be redefined not as the property of an individual but as a form of social theory that represents the social and political experiences of disabled people. In his view, the only way to ensure human rights for the disabled people is torepresent disability not as an individual tragedy but as something common to all human beingswho depend upon one another throughout their lives. Siebers deals with the question of why thedisabled people are oppressed in our cultures. According to him, our society represents ability asa generalized human trait. “Ability is one of the markers of humanity” (qtd. in Rottenberg<http://www.disabilityandrepresentation.com>). Finally, we find Malini overcoming allchallenges and getting employed as an event manager at Oxford Book Store, Mumbai.More than just an autobiography,
One Little Finger
is also a history of the variousapproaches to disability. The book also throws immense light on the rights-based social model of disability which has a great relevance in our contemporary world and society. It rejects the ideathat disability is something terrible that can happen to some unfortunate persons. According tothe social model, disability is caused by the way society is organized rather than by a person’simpairment. It offers ways to remove the barriers that restrict life choices for the disabled people.It was the Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation
,
an early disability rightsorganization in UK, that established the principles of social model of disability.In our view it is society which disables physically impaired people. Disability issomething imposed on top of our impairments by the way we are unnecessarilyisolated and excluded from full participation in society. Disabled people aretherefore an oppressed group in society (qtd. in Michalko
9
).Written in a simple and lucid manner, Malini Chib💟 has shared with the readers what she wantedto express.
WORKS CITEDChib, Malini. New Delhi: SAGE India, 2011. Print.Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. "Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory."
NWSA Journal
14.3 (2002): 1+.
JSTOR
. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 20 Mar.2015.Michalko, Rod, and Tanya Titchkosky, eds. “The Social Model in Context”.
Rethinking Normalcy: A Disability Studies Reader
. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’, 2009. 20-21. Print.Rottenberg, Rachel Cohen. "The Body as Social Theory: An Analysis of Tobin Siebers’Disability Theory."
Disability and Representation
. N.p., 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 19 Mar.2015. <http://www.disabilityandrepresentation.com/the-body-as-social-theory-an-analysis-of-tobin-siebers-disability-theory/>.
Malini Chib
Indian author
OverviewBooksEducationInterviews
Search Results
Main results
Malini Chib (born 1966) is an Indian disability rights activist and author who has cerebral palsy. ... Chib wrote the book One Little Finger over the course of ...
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India · Diversity and Inclusion Officer · ADAPT(able disabled All people together)
View malini chib's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. malini has 1 job listed on their profile. See the complete profile on ...
by R Addlakha · 2012 — One Little Finger is the inspiring story of Malini Chib, a cerebral- affected Indian woman in her forties. Her autobiography captures the.
Last year, on World Disability Day, a 44-year-old woman Malini Chib, with cerebral palsy, released a book, One Little Finger, with a strong message about the ...
16 results — malini chib News: Latest and Breaking News on malini chib. Explore malini chib profile at Times of India for photos, videos and latest news of ...
30-Jul-2022 — Indian disability rights activist and author. In more languages. Spanish. Malini Chib. No description defined. Traditional Chinese.
m
No comments:
Post a Comment