I have been involved in Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) initiatives in different parts of the world. The goal of Emancipatory Research is to promote empowerment of marginalised people. Therefore, it is important to ask ourselves what is empowerment? Can it be promoted? If yes, how? This post talks about some ideas of empowerment and how it can be promoted. It includes ideas from some of my discussions with young persons with disabilities in Mongolia during 2017-2020, who had taken part in an emancipatory research (images from Mongolia EDR have been used in this post). Emancipatory Research (ER) Normally the main goal of a research is to gain new knowledge or new understandings. The main goal of a Emancipatory Research (ER) is to help marginalised persons to gain understanding about factors which cause or worsen their marginalisation. ER can be done by individuals (IER) or by groups or communities (CER) of marginalised persons. My professional experience relates mainly to ER cond
In today's FirstPost , an online newspaper from India, there is a cover story on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) by Kalikesh Singh Deo, " a member of the Biju Janata Dal party. He is the Convenor of the National Coalition on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Malaria ". I have some concerns about the use of term " elimination " for reducing the number of certain diseases like Kala Azar and Lymphatic Filariasis, under the guidance of the World Health Organisation (WHO). I hope that bodies advising the Government of India would have discussions with stakeholders to ensure a reduction in the negative fall-out from the use of such terminology. Let me explain why I think that using terms like "elimination" in such campaigns is a double-edged sword. (The image below presents some ASHA workers from Maharashtra, India - all public health programmes reach people through these front-line workers in India - without them no campaign or programme can work). WHO