Assessment of Awareness Levels of Parents – A Multivariate Approach

Prerna Sharma

doi:10.13189/sa.2015.030108

Abstract

Disability is a complex, and dynamic phenomenon impacting lives of children afflicted with it, in numerous ways. Conventionally children with disability have been relegated to the margins, both within the child rights agenda and disability rights movement. Their dependence on parents for fulfillment of basic needs and human rights entitlements provides the basis for parents having to take on the responsibility to ensure the same. Parents can take action leading to fulfillment of entitlements based on their awareness of available information, services and facilities. The study aims to find out the level of parents awareness with respect to human rights entitlements of their children. It discusses the detailed methodology applied in this study for assessment of awareness levels of parents. This study lends itself to the use of a quantitative paradigm as the findings allow for generalization using a large sample size and the work pre supposes that parents' awareness of rights of Children with Disabilities is affected by (i) personal factors of Parent (i.e. age, sex, religion, educational attainment, occupation) (ii) socio-economic factors such as number of children and nature of family, family income, per capita income) and (iii) factors relating to child with disability (i.e. age, sex, type of disability, age at the onset of disability and birth order of child in the family). A decision tree method is used to establish the dominant factors from among the personal and socio-economic factors of respondent parents which impact the awareness level of parents of child with disability. From the decision tree method, it is established that parents' education attainment is the most dominant factor affecting their awareness levels. From the remaining factors, birth order of the child in the family, child's type of disability and number of children in the family are also dominant factors affecting awareness of respondent parent of rights of child with disability.

Highlights

Disability is a complex, and dynamic phenomenon impacting lives of children afflicted with it, in numerous ways resulting in their vulnerability
This paper presents a methodology for assessing parents’ awareness levels with respect to the human rights entitlements of the children with disabilities
Through descriptive analysis and the focus group discussions conducted in the five organizations/ special schools it was clear was that all parents knew that children have rights entitlements

Summary

Introduction

Disability is a complex, and dynamic phenomenon impacting lives of children afflicted with it, in numerous ways resulting in their vulnerability. The needs and rights of children with disabilities are frequently overlooked, as they experience double invisibility – that of being a child and a disabled individual. This is corroborated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD), 2006 [2] which states that children with disabilities are often subsumed with in the category of people with disabilities. Vulnerability among children with disabilities is very common since disabilities are barriers to accessing their rights entitlements. This research study attempts to explore whether children with disability are able to access their human rights entitlements. This study is located within the canvas of human rights entitlements of children with disability

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Conclusion