Mr. Ramprasad will present his APS as per the detail below:

Date: 27 Feb 2023

Time: 1000 - 1130 hrs.

Venue: CTARA Conference Room No.1

Topic: Determinants of Success for a Person with Disability (PwD) in a Given Livelihood Ecosystem

Guide: Prof Anand B Rao, Dr M R Seetharam

RPC members: Prof Satish B Agnihotri, Prof Pankaj Sekhsaria, Prof B Ravi

Abstract:

Nearly 16% of the world’s population, i.e., 1.3 billion people experience some form of disability (WHO, 2022). Within India, Census 2011 figures indicate that 26.8 million people in India are disabled. Although there is an emerging change in societal perception about disability, especially after the enactment of international conventions and national laws, there is still a long way to go for persons with disabilities (PwDs) who are mostly unemployed (Chari et al., 2009) primarily due to stereotyped notions of incompetence and inaccessibility. As livelihood offers a multi-dimensional experience, a suitable such engagement for a PwD may even offer a turnaround to one’s life – i.e., from the feeling of inferiority and dependency to a feeling of ‘I-can’ and resilience. We hypothesise that ‘success’ in a livelihood ecosystem is influenced by multiple factors – personal, social, economic, technological, political, etc. and many of these can be modified to enhance the quality of life. There seems to be a role which assistive technologies can play in facilitating livelihoods even in rural Indian settings. In this connection, although there is literature available on the relationship between persons with disabilities and their engagement in formal employment options across different countries, their involvement in rural livelihood scenarios especially in the Indian context involving the use of assistive technologies appear limited. It is hence proposed to undertake a descriptive research with a participatory worldview wherein experiences of the participants and stakeholders are captured and are simultaneously backed up by related data to the extent feasible. This is expected to lead to a grounded theory of the determinants of a livelihood ‘success.’ The scope of work is being refined and the method of gauging relevant factors leading to such a ‘success’ are yet to be worked out. Nevertheless, the way forward appears to be leading towards a research problem, whose solutions are expected to emerge only after getting into the core of it.