ABSTRACT
Sexuality for disabled people in South Asia remains under-discussed. South Asia normative society has had a conspiracy of silence about the sexuality of disabled people, and this topic has not been prioritised, even amongst disabled right activists. Whereas the past two decades or so have been instrumental in bringing change in the form of equal opportunities legislation, the disability discourse still continues to be framed in medicalised and human rights terms. This paper underscores the missing discourse of desire in studies of disability and sexuality. Theoretical influences and debates informing prevailing assumptions about disability and sexuality in India will be scrutinised. The sexuality of disabled women among inequitable sites of contestation will be reimagined and disabled women’s subjectivities will be conceptualised as “asexual” or “hypersexual” medical interpretations. Furthermore, the ways in which the intersection of disability and sexuality involves an understanding of the entwining conversations of normalcy, sexuality, able-bodiedness, moral panic, access and desire, which can evolve the potentialities for desire, intimacy and sexuality for people with a disability, will be explored. Attention is called to the significance of sex education for disabled people.
(sexuality, India, culture, disability, education)
