How do you understand disability? Substantiate the need for inclusive policy framework in India in this regard. (Answer in 150…

How do you understand disability? Substantiate the need for inclusive policy framework in India in this regard. (Answer in 150 words) 10 marks

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अपंगता को आप किस प्रकार समझते हैं? इस विषय में भारत में समावेशी नीतिगत ढाँचे की आवश्यकता सिद्ध कीजिए। (उत्तर 150 शब्दों में दीजिए)

The question as printed in the 2026 General Studies paper

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Model answer

Drafted with AI by UPSC Answer Check against this question's marking rubric, to the 150-word length. UPSC does not publish answers for Mains — this is one way to score well, not an official key. How we build rubrics and answers.

Disability is best understood not as an individual medical deficit (medical model) but as the outcome of interaction between impairments and social, environmental and attitudinal barriers (social model), as codified in the UNCRPD (2006).

Need for an Inclusive Framework in India

Scale: Census 2011 counted about 2.68 crore persons with disabilities (2.21% of the population), widely regarded as an undercount.

Rights-Based Law: The RPwD Act, 2016 expanded recognised disabilities from 7 to 21 and mandated 4% reservation in government jobs and 5% in higher-education seats for persons with benchmark disabilities.

Implementation Gaps: Accessibility targets under the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan remain unmet and employment stays low despite quotas; in Rajive Raturi v. Union of India (2024), the Supreme Court held that accessibility standards must be mandatory.

Intersectionality: Disability compounds poverty, gender and rural disadvantage, demanding targeted interventions.

An inclusive framework therefore needs universal design in infrastructure and digital services, inclusive education under NEP 2020, UDID-based data, and budgets that treat support as entitlement, not charity.

How this answer will be evaluated

Framework: GS1 Society: Continuity, data, intersectionality, then solution

What earns full marks: Analytical definition + specific policy gaps + robust data/statistic + clear link to inclusion.

Evaluation rubric

Each sub-part is marked on its own, against the marks and word limit printed on the paper.

The answer Explain your understanding of disability (medical vs social/rights-based model) and substantiate, with evidence, the need for an inclusive policy framework in India. 10 marks · 150 words

justify— claim → 3-4 reasons → evidence → conclusion
Must cover
- Define disability (e.g., social model vs medical model)
- Identify specific gaps in current Indian policy or implementation
- Link policy gaps to exclusion in education, employment, or access
- Substantiate need with specific examples or data points
Loses marks
- Emotive language without policy analysis
- Generic definition without social context
- Listing policies without substantiating the 'need'
Earns more
- Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (21 categories, 4% job and 5% higher-education reservation)
- Specific data (e.g., Census 2011: about 2.68 crore, 2.21% of population)
- Intersectionality (e.g., women and rural persons with disabilities)
- UNCRPD (2006) as the source of the rights-based approach
Extra mark
- A Supreme Court judgment on disability rights (e.g., Rajive Raturi v. Union of India, 2024, on mandatory accessibility)
- A specific scheme or tool (e.g., Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, UDID card)

What "How" is asking you to do

Set out the route by which the outcome comes about, step by step. Many how stems ask how one thing affects another, and there the channel of transmission is precisely what is being marked.

Structure that answers it

Starting condition → step → step → outcome reached → the conditions the route depends on

Where marks are lost

Answering why it happens instead of how, the commonest single misread in the paper. An answer full of causes and significance that never traces the mechanism has answered a different question.

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