NEGLECT Neglect means wilful lack of care and attention. It is also referred to as (a) to fail to do or carry out, as through carelessness or oversight and (b) failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances. It is also the trait of neglecting responsibilities and lacking concern. Disabled people experiences neglect in many instances. Disabled children are neglected in education, play grounds, sports, leisure, love, support, health and decision making processes like selecting their own food or dress. Like wise disabled adults also suffer from neglect in the areas of Employment, active participation in Society, Family life, health including reproductive health care and Marriage, Property rights, Decision making process etc. Disabled people are often neglected of their material, financial, emotional requirements. The following case study explains how a disabled person is neglected by his family Balan, a person with Cerebral Palsy, was studying in a special school in Chennai. He belonged to an upper middle class family. His siblings were doing professional courses. His family used to leave him in a temple at their convenient time in the morning to take his school bus. After school hours, the school bus used to leave him back in the temple. He would wait for hours together, for his father to come and pick him up,. The rest of the family members never bothered to support him. Many times people had mistaken him for a beggar on the streets. The only reason for the rest of his family members not supporting him was his disability. They didnt want any body in the society to know that Balan had disability. This is a clear case of neglect of a disabled person by the family members. He was not treated with dignity, which is against the constitutional rights of Right to Life with Dignity. ABUSE Abuse is a complex psychosocial problem that affects large numbers of adults as well as children throughout the world. Although abuse was first defined with regard to children when it first received sustained attention in the 1950s, clinicians and researchers now recognize that adults can suffer abuse in a number of different circumstances. Abuse refers to harmful or injurious treatment of another human being that may include physical, sexual, verbal, psychological/emotional, intellectual, or spiritual maltreatment. Abuse may coexist with neglect, which is defined as failure to meet a dependent persons basic physical and medical needs, emotional deprivation, and/or desertion. Neglect is sometimes described as passive abuse. Physical abuse is the non-consensual infliction of pain and bodily harm to another and includes binding (eg. Tying, chaining, manacling, taping), burning (eg. Via cigarette, open flame, hot objects, forced exposure to sun, etc), hitting, striking, slapping, pushing, throwing things, expression of frustration, impatience, dislike, anger or fear, and imprisonment. Verbal abuse include accusing, blaming, teasing / joking, manipulating, ridiculing, judgmental criticism, name calling, humiliating. Sexual abuse refers to inappropriate sexual contact between a child or an adult and someone who has some kind of family or professional authority over them. Sexual abuse may include verbal remarks, fondling or kissing, or attempted or completed intercourse. Emotional/psychological abuse covers a variety of behaviors that hurt or injure others. In fact, emotional abuse is a stronger predictor than physical abuse of the likelihood of suicide attempts in later life. Examples of emotional abuse are destruction of someones pet or valued possession, emotional blackmail - such as threatening to commit suicide unless the other person does what is wanted, shaming or humiliating someone in front of others. Abuse has aftermath effects on physical, neurobiological, cognitive, emotional, social and educational aspects. Derogatory language is often used by media to refer to disabled people. For
