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

- How do you understand disability? Substantiate the need for inclusive policy framework in India in this regard. (Answer in 150 words)
Introduction
Disability is understood in two competing ways, and the choice decides what policy is obliged to do.
How disability is understood
- The medical model puts the problem in the person — an impairment to be cured or compensated. It produces charity.
- The social model puts it in the environment — the same impairment disables only where buildings, transport, curricula and attitudes exclude. It produces rights.
- Indian law follows the second: the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 defines disability as the interaction between a long-term impairment and barriers to equal participation.
Why India needs an inclusive framework
- Scale: Census 2011 recorded 2.68 crore persons with disability, and is widely held to undercount.
- Accessibility: barrier-free buildings, transport and digital services are the precondition for every other right.
- Education and work: assistive technology and trained teachers; skill development and the Act's 4% reservation in government posts.
- The implementation gap: the statute exists; enforcement and disaggregated data do not match it.
Conclusion
The social model shifts the question from what a person cannot do to what the environment refuses to accommodate.