In the long etymology of physical mental handicaps, we have now arrived at 'divyang'. It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coinage.
He wants us to call people with disability of any sort as 'divyang' rather than 'viklang'. Starting off from medieval usages like 'blind', 'deaf' and 'dumb', we've been through 'handicapped', 'disabled', 'challenged', 'differently abled', 'special people' and now 'people with divine abilities.' Or, simply, divyang.
Ever since the PM aired his idea of divine light, social media are abuzz, debating whether this does justice to the people it is intended to. Divine light or not, justice to the divyang people is not just a matter of a new descriptor, but real action on the ground.
Let's start with a basic question: Shouldn't government departments and commissions for the welfare of the divyang be headed by people with such qualities? The chairperson of the National Commission for Women has always been a woman.
Commissions for the welfare of dalits are invariably headed by people from a similar social background. Minorities commissions are always headed by individuals from a minority group. So why not the divyang?
In legislatures, moreover, disadvantaged communities have quotas. Why not mandated representation for the divyang?
As per the 2011 Census, there are 2.68 crore divyang persons in India, and every state has a commission or welfare society to protect their interests.
Most of them are chaired by a civil servant or a minister who may or may not be divyang himself.
"I believe that a person with a disability would understand our problems better than a person without any handicap," says Renoj, a visually challenged student from Jawaharlal Nehru University. "A change of description is not going to make no difference to us. This is just another way to encourage people to have a sympathetic approach towards us. That's not enough."
Would it make a difference if divyang initiatives are headed by divyang people? K S Rajanna is the commissioner for the disabled in Karnataka. He is a physically challenged person himself. Not content with the usual welfare measures, he started enterprises himself to give employment to more than 300 persons.
The Prime Minister's name change for handicapped people is fraught with implications for the government's functioning. No less than 200 government departments have been told to remove the description 'physically handicapped' from their lexicon. Then there is the simple matter of the changing the names of government agencies like the Department of Disability Affairs.
But the transition from 'handicapped' to 'divyang' needs more than a change of governmental nomenclature, says Renuj, the divyang JNU student. It needs a complete overhaul of the mandate given to social justice departments.
"Welfare societies restrict their responsibility to issuing ID cards, medical certificates, walking sticks and wheelchairs. Or some welfare board might give us a loan to set up a lottery kiosk. It clearly shows that they have no vision," he says.
"Most of all, they fail to see us as normal beings. If we score more or do well in our field of work, they consider it as something exceptional, not something we are inherently capable of. Yes, it would make a difference if such welfare bodies are headed by divyang people," he says.