“If My Mother Was Well”: Maternal Disability and the Assumed Subject of Schooling

Abstract

Despite the Indian state’s commitment to education for all, many groups of children find themselves marginalised from educational spaces. While it is now acknowledged that children with disabilities are one such highly marginalised group and have received policy and research attention, children who have disabled family members often remain invisible within these discussions. In the absence of a formal care policy in India, where care is organised within families and shaped by cis-heteropatriarchy, the conceptualisation of access demands an understanding of the interdependent nature of lives and how marginalities are shaped not only by disability but also close proximity to disability. This article analyses the narratives of adult children of mothers with psychosocial disabilities to highlight the barriers to school access experienced because of invisible, familial disabilities. Further, by paying attention to these everyday experiences of schooling of marginalised and invisibilised childhoods, the article problematises the assumptions around which modern schooling is organised. The article argues that centring disabilities and interdependence within educational access debates provide opportunities for challenging norms essential to disability justice as well as broader access to education for all.