Inclusive Classrooms: The Role of Student Bodies

Enable Education hosted our recent dialogue on the topic ‘Inclusive Classrooms: The Role of Student Bodies’. Our speaker for this event was Ms Japgun Kaur, the President of The Equal Opportunity Cell and Enabling Unit of The Sri Guru Gobind Sigh College of Commerce, University of Delhi. She is a 3^rd year Economics Honours Student and leads the Design Team at Enable Education.

Japgun began by outlining the role of Equal Opportunity Cells and Enabling Units, to promote inclusion, participation and upliftment of students with disabilities. She underscored the role of student bodies in forming a bridge between students and administration, in an attempt for the grievances and needs of the students to be heard. Student bodies are affirmative spaces that lend a listening ear, have open dialogue and normalise access to support. The student bodies also hosts inclusive events where students can show talent and students with disabilities understand more about disability by volunteering for such events in college. One of the major gaps in the leadership of such departments is the lack of representation in leadership positions and Japgun says that as far as her college is concerned, this is because students with disabilities themselves did not come forward to contest for these positions. She also shared how they work to provide scribes and other facilities to students, even as it becomes very challenging to do so because of administrative barriers.

In the end, she urged students to treat their disabled peers with empathy, kindness and not pity. She urged students to foster inclusion just by talking and interacting with peers, help them only if they need them and understand that they need friendships just like other people.