Rajathurai Nishanthi
Women with visual impairment have experienced exclusion and marginalization from family, mainstream school, the community and university. The experience of social exclusion is multi-structural, multidimensional and complex. This paper is aimed to describe the social exclusion of women with visual impairment in Tiruchirappalli District. The descriptive nature of the study is undertaken with 30 women with visual impairment aged 18 and above 42 years were selected through purposive sampling technique. An interview schedule and observation was used for collection of data. The study result revealed that when the age group of the respondents is concerned they were mostly come under the age group of 18 to 29 years, mostly of Christians and 50% 0f respondents were categorized into up to primary level. When looking at marital status of 10% of the respondents were widow. It is noted that half of the respondents having family income of Rs.2,000 to 4,000/- and 40% are in joint families in nature. The study established that participants’ exclusion from access to opportunities and development left them psychologically, socially, financially and emotionally blemished. Conclusion: The study established that visual impairment and social exclusion were related.
Social exclusion, Social inclusion, Poverty, Marginalization, Women