Autism and the Family in Urban India - Looking Back, Looking Forward

The book explores the lived reality of parenting and caring for children with autism in contemporary urban India. It is based on a qualitative, ethnographic study of families of children with autism as they negotiate the tricky terrain of identifying their child s disability, obtaining a diagnosis, accessing appropriate services and their on-going efforts to come to terms with and make sense of their child s unique subjectivity and mode of being. It examines the gendered dimensions of coping and care-giving and the differential responses of mothers and fathers, siblings and grandparents and the extended family network to this complex and often extremely challenging condition. 
The book tackles head on the sombre question, What will happen to the child after the parents are gone ? It also critically examines the role of the state, civil society and legal and institutional frameworks in place in India and undertakes a case study of Action for Autism ; a Delhi-based NGO set up by parents of children with autism.  This book also draws upon the author s own engagement with her child' s disability and thus lends an authenticity born out of lived experience and in-depth understanding. It is a valuable addition to the literature in the sociology of the family and disability studies. 


Shubhangi Vaidya graduated in sociology from St. Xavier's College, University of Mumbai. She completed her post-graduation and research degrees at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Shubhangi is presently a faculty member in the School of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi, where is engaged in developing open and distance learning programmes in the interdisciplinary domains of labour and development and migration and diaspora studies. Her current research interests include disability studies, women's studies and labour studies. She has published both scholarly as well as general articles and book chapters and is co-author (with Anu Aneja) of a book Embodying Motherhood: Perspectives from Contemporary India (forthcoming). Alongside her research and teaching roles, she is an advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities and their families; and is actively involved in awareness-building within the community. Her other interests include reading, watching movies and listening to Hindi film music.