by Zaheer Jan
Meaningful inclusion is not a one-day commitment; it needs continuous work, robust law enforcement, and infrastructure that everyone can access.
Every year, December 3 is observed as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The theme for this year, Fostering Disability-Inclusive Societies for Advancing Social Progress, mirrors the pledge the world has taken to ensure a world where each human being is treated with dignity and equality.
Several organisations, NGOs, and rehabilitation centres prepare special programmes and stage events on this day, where children with special needs, along with persons with disabilities, participate in various cultural and creative activities. These platforms aim to showcase their talents, raise awareness, and promote inclusion. Yet the urgent question remains: why are children with special needs still waiting for their rights?
Despite policies, events, and promises, and despite the implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD Act), many children continue to face barriers to quality inclusive education, early intervention healthcare, accessibility, vocational training, and acceptance. True inclusion requires far more than a one-day observance; it is about regular action, stronger implementation of the laws, community support, accessible infrastructure, and an attitude change in society. Only then can we ensure that children with special needs are not just celebrated on a single day but are given the rights, opportunities, and respect they deserve every day.
The ‘Invisible’ Law
The RPWD Act 2016 was path-breaking legislation aimed at guaranteeing equality, dignity, and full inclusion for persons with disabilities in Jammu and Kashmir. While it has been enacted on paper, the Act is far from being enforced in reality and exists more as a paper framework than a functional tool of change. In practice, most government and private institutions and public facilities fall utterly short of implementing even the basic requirements of the law, because of which children with special needs and other persons with disabilities are systematically deprived of the rights and protections guaranteed to them under the law. Inclusive education, early intervention services, rehabilitation therapies, and other essential facilities continue to remain highly limited, especially in rural and remote areas.
The State Disability Commissioner, whose office is critical for monitoring and implementing the laws relating to disability, finished his three-year tenure on September 27, 2025, but the government did not constitute the mandatory Advisory Board for Persons with Disabilities or the District-Level Committees under the RPWD Act. These are necessary for ensuring accessibility in public buildings, effective monitoring of service delivery, and enforcement of inclusive education programmes in all types of educational institutions. Their absence is not simply an administrative oversight but a systemic failure and a gross lack of political will to uphold the rights of the most vulnerable members of society.
This long period of inactivity is more than a failure of governance; it is also a personal violation of dignity, equality, and justice. Most especially, children with special needs continue to face an incomplete and fragmented system, a system that often poses inaccessible barriers to their receiving required services for development and well-being. Each passing day prevents them from growing and learning in ways that would allow them to contribute to society as others do, and places families under emotional and financial stress.
This negligence is forcing society to face one hard and uncomfortable question: for how long will children with different disabilities, particularly those with autism, have to wait for support, systems, and respect, which are not optional but their basic human right? The promise in the RPWD Act remains mere words without proper enforcement, accountability, and real political will, and the children the law is supposed to protect keep being passed over and left behind. The time for empty statements and symbolic actions is gone; what is urgently needed is strong action, proper implementation, and ongoing support to ensure these children get the care, protection, and opportunities they deserve.
The Ground Reality
Inclusive education and early intervention facilities for children with special needs are still largely missing in the rural areas and many districts of Jammu as well as Srinagar. A parent of a special-needs child, Ms Shabeena from South Kashmir, whose seven-year-old son is autistic, informed me that her child was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. However, she could not find any early intervention centre in Anantnag, either in private or government hospitals, and had to take him to a private Child Development Centre in Srinagar for regular therapies for one year. She said that although she visited the Medical College, Anantnag, for different therapies, the early intervention facility there was not up to the mark, and the required infrastructure and equipment were not available at that time.
Now, at the age of seven, private schools are refusing admission to her son due to autism. She informed me that government schools under SAMAGRA have started inclusive education, but only a few resource rooms exist, most of them far away from her home, and not fully equipped or suitable for her child. She said she is struggling a lot because the rights of children with special needs are still being denied. In Anantnag, many parents of special-needs children are deeply worried about their children and feel mentally distressed and unsupported.
Another parent, Mudasir Ahmed from District Budgam, said that his son is suffering from mild autism. He takes him to different private therapy centres in Srinagar due to the lack of essential early intervention services like occupational therapy, speech therapy, or rehabilitation therapy at government hospitals in the Budgam district. He said he travels to Srinagar regularly for these therapies and feels that the government is not serious about the needs of such children.
He further said that his son was denied admission by many private schools, and after transferring from one school to another, a well-known private school finally admitted him. But after a few months, the school authorities called the parents, saying the child showed different behaviour, and pressured them to cancel his admission. He said the rights of children with special needs are being denied in Jammu and Kashmir, and hundreds of children are at risk.
Pramod, a parent of a five-year-old autistic child from Rajouri, informed me that early intervention treatment as well as inclusive education are not available in rural districts. He said he shifted to Jammu only because of his son’s treatment and the need for inclusive education. He visited GMC and other district hospitals in Jammu for his son’s treatment and therapies, but early intervention facilities were not available in these hospitals. He then took his son to PGI Chandigarh for treatment, but the doctors recommended regular therapies, which made it difficult for him to stay in Chandigarh for long.
After returning to Jammu, he visited private centres for OT and speech therapy because the environment, infrastructure, and equipment in government hospitals and the GMC were not suitable for children with special needs. He also said that private schools denied admission to his son, and he had to admit him to a crèche for socialisation because private schools in Jammu did not show any responsibility toward such children.
Pramod said he has tried his best to reach out to national organisations to start early intervention facilities for children in Jammu and Kashmir, but so far, nothing has happened. He requested the government to establish early intervention centres in every government hospital, especially in rural districts, and to appoint occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, and rehabilitation therapists so that parents can access early intervention treatment without delay and without having to move from one district to another, because early intervention is very important for these children. He also said that these special-needs children require regular therapies, and not every parent can afford private child development centres.
While several private rehabilitation and child development centres have come up in Srinagar and Jammu over the past few years, rural areas remain glaringly underserved. For families living outside the urban centres, accessing these facilities is often prohibitively expensive and logistically challenging, forcing parents to travel long distances to avail therapies and interventions that are extremely important for their children. This stark gap underlines the dire need for the government to establish fully equipped early intervention centres in every district, ideally within the district hospital, so that children with special needs can receive timely, affordable, and locally accessible care.
Equally important is a strong, implementable policy for education. The Education Department should make it obligatory for private schools to reserve a certain quota of their seating capacity for special children so that no child is refused admission on the basis of incapacity. Although the School Education Department has circulated the prohibition of such discrimination through various circulars, these directions remain mere ink on paper, as many schools still refuse admission. This systemic discrimination not only denies children with special needs their rights but also violates their basic right to education. What is required are urgent and strong steps to implement policy into practice, ensuring that every child receives the education, support, and opportunities they deserve.
According to the RPWD Act 2016, every school is bound to facilitate the admission of children with special needs into mainstream inclusive education, and every hospital has to provide early intervention facilities. Unfortunately, the law largely exists on paper. On the ground, children are still waiting for their rights.
Some NGOs in Srinagar and Jammu run special schools and support children with special needs. But parents are keen to see their children admitted to regular schools, and not segregated into special schools. They want to see their children learn, grow, and flourish together with other kids, as equals, with dignity, and as rightful members of society.
The Urgency of Now
Children with special needs are not asking for special treatment; they are asking for their rightful place in society. Their rights are not privileges or optional goals to be achieved “when convenient,” but fundamental human rights that demand immediate action. On this International Disability Day, it is time for the world to face the uncomfortable truth that children with disabilities in Jammu and Kashmir, as in other states of India, are still waiting; society has not moved fast enough. The time for promises is over; what is needed now is commitment, accountability, and compassion.
Children with special needs need consistent support, not one-day celebrations or symbolic events. The government must come forward with strong policies for inclusive education and early intervention, as a monthly pension of just Rs 1,250 is insufficient. These children do not need charity but rather their rightful entitlements, proper services, and an enabling system to live with dignity and equality. Only then can we ensure that every child, regardless of ability, gets an opportunity for growth, learning, and thriving. Because inclusivity is not a favour; it is a right.
(The author is a Senior Paediatric Rehab Therapist and Social Worker (MSW) Working for Disability and Child Rights. Ideas are personal.)
