Note: This is a collaborative blog by Nivedita Krishnakumar, Anvitha Tammisetti and Europa Doley who attended International Purple Fest, Goa 2025 together.
We all arrived in Goa with high hopes and excitement for the International Purple Fest 2025, considering that we had the opportunity to attend one of the major events in the disability inclusion space, just a week after we had all moved to our respective host locations. Many questions were flying through our heads:
Why the colour purple? Why Goa? What is purple rain, purple charcha, and the purple economy? These words make sense on their own, but when combined with “purple,” what do they really mean?
In due time, our questions were gradually answered. As we landed our feet at the event location, which was made accessible with ramps likely prepared in the weeks or days leading up to the event, we also noticed the nearby beach was wrapped in red carpets in an effort to make it accessible. The city of Panaji was covered with vibrant purple flags, lights, and creative mascots. Exhibitions showcased assistive technologies, adaptive art, and inclusive design, alongside performances, workshops, conferences, and para-sport activities that celebrated diversity in all its forms.
The inaugural ceremony- Purple Rain, which lasted late into the night, featured cultural performances by people with diverse disabilities, highlighting that this was their space, a space where they did not need to fit in but could simply be themselves. As we tried to cover as many events to gather information in the following days, we also began reflecting on the gaps. Were we truly moving towards genuine inclusion through such festivals, or would this remain a once-a-year event offering only temporary recognition?
Reasonable Accommodation in Healthcare
Why is everything a battle that we ourselves have to fight? When is it going to be our turn to sit down and listen? A woman with a disability exclaimed when discussing the practice of NGOs training doctors on how to create accessible healthcare. It made me think why is this not in the curriculum? As a healthcare professional, it is an act of service, is it not their duty to provide for their patients and accommodate their needs?
As per the RPwD Act of 2016, ‘reasonable accommodation’ states that appropriate modifications should be made without undue burden to PwD (people with disabilities) to exercise their rights equally. However, hearing how much responsibility is on the PwD to educate or even find their own interpreters at the hospital, reveals gaps in the implementation of this clause. Curious to see what is currently taught in medical schools curriculum on disability awareness, we came to find limited mentions of neurodiversity as the focus was primarily on the signs and symptoms of various disabilities. This curriculum leaves many of the medical graduates with a minimal understanding of what disability-inclusive compassionate care entails. With the emphasis of the biological models of disability, we lose sight of the people behind these conditions and how this condition affects them beyond just the medical concerns. Incorporating lessons on the rights of PwD, and working directly with neurodiverse individuals will allow medical students to gain a better understanding of the needs and challenges of this community. Through a deep dive into MBBS curriculum, a physician with poliomyelitis came up, advocating for change stating that “dignity, equity, and human rights should be at the centre of healthcare.” His drive towards making these changes further drove how important it is to incorporate PwD voices in leadership, because representation can challenge long-standing barriers and reshape systems from within. All of this points to the same conclusion: without intentional integration of disability rights into medical training, the system will continue to fall short of the people it aims to serve.
Who are the Purple Economy Consumers?
‘My child had to be taken out of their wheelchair at the airport, yet when they traveled internationally that wasn’t a problem’. This was a query that a woman attending a session on Legal Rights and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities posed to current and past judges who have expertise in the RpWD Act of 2016 and aim to promote better practices to bridge that implementation gap. The response she received was to file a complaint to the respective authorities, which she stated she did. The final answer was that the respective airport authorities will be forwarded this message. Yet what we hoped to hear was why this barrier was present domestically yet when internationally it was not an issue.
Before explaining this anecdote, it is imperative to look into the government’s role in this. During the fest many spaces had PwDs such as the stalls where people are able to get connected to resources and organizations throughout India doing all kinds of work. Examples include government bodies providing information on policies present and how PwDs can access them. A person who knows the policy and works in the department was there to answer all kinds of questions.
So this brings us to the aspect of accessibility during the event. Despite providing resources for PwDs to get connected with government bodies, the sessions and overall event catered towards funders and policymakers to discuss and many sessions had a lot of CSR representatives. Socioeconomic differences that exist were not addressed, example is mentioning how easy buying things has gotten for PwD (purple economy-how PwD should be viewed as a consumer not a burden) but many people in India (Inamdar 2025), states that 1 billion people which is 70-90 percent of the population does not have spending money meaning money goes to essentials leaving nothing for non essentials cannot afford said goods. As per Rashmi (2024), there is a disproportionate number of PwDs that are socioeconomically disadvantaged with low incomes and low literacy rates. In this case of disability, goods that go beyond essentials that Amazon mentions are not possible for PwDs, rendering the question- who is purple economy catering to? Just the socioeconomically advantageous?
Building off of this, (pictured above) there was a session held about the importance of data in the disability sector. Yet, the last census was done in 2011 with an announcement that the next Census in India is set to be held in 2027. This session answered a big question of when the next Census will be done but left many questions as to whether this will finally be representative of the population of PwDs.
While the fest attempted to address the issues of accessibility the conversation was limited to stop gap solutions. A prime example is having innovative technology for different kinds of disability but not quite questioning if this solution is accessible to all.
Regional Gaps in Livelihood Opportunities
A woman with visual impairment from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, stood up during the Q&A round of a panel discussion on building an inclusive work environment and livelihood options. She wanted to know whether there were concrete plans to create livelihood opportunities for persons with disabilities in the eastern part of the country, noting that the discussion had focused on opportunities and inclusive practices in corporate sectors primarily concentrated in Western and Southern India. She explained that although her organization trains youth with disabilities in her region, they are often compelled to migrate to Delhi or other metropolitan cities for employment. Her question captured a reality seldom addressed directly in policy conversations and reflects broader national patterns.
Research consistently shows that states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and many in the North-East experience some of the highest rates of interstate labour migration, primarily toward the western, southern, and northern urban hubs where major companies are established. For persons with disabilities, these challenges are worsened: participation in the workforce remains significantly lower, especially for women with disabilities, who face intersecting barriers of gender, geography, and disability. Employment opportunities in the eastern and north-eastern regions are often limited to informal or low-paying sectors, leaving trained individuals with disabilities with little choice but to migrate, even when such movement is economically and socially difficult.
The government representative among the panelists responded by noting that DEPwD is working to expand upskilling programs through local collaboration to every corner of the country, and emphasized the need to work towards bringing more opportunities to these regions. However, the exchange served as a reminder that inclusion is deeply intertwined with decentralization. Creating equitable livelihood opportunities requires not only national programs but also regional investment, industry participation, and strong local ecosystems. The session taught us that listening to lived experiences, especially those from regions historically left out of corporate expansion, is essential for closing gaps in employment access for persons with disabilities across India.
References:
Championing Disability Inclusion in Health Systems and Medical Education: Dr Satendra Singh. World Health Organization, www.who.int/southeastasia/news/feature-stories/detail/championing-disability-inclusion-in-health-systems-and-medical-education–dr-satendra-singh. Accessed 20 Nov. 2025.
How Bihar’s Education and Skills Push Is Reshaping Jobs and Migration in 2025. India Today, 25 Oct. 2025, https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/how-bihars-education-and-skills-push-is-reshaping-jobs-and-migration-in-2025-2808277-2025-10-25/.
Inamdar, Nikhil. “India: A Billion People Have No Real Money to Spend, Says Report – BBC News.” BBC News, 25 Feb. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rk5d7ekjmo.amp.
Rashmi, R., and S.K. Mohanty. “Socioeconomic and Geographic Variations of Disabilities in India: Evidence from the National Family Health Survey, 2019–21.” International Journal of Health Geographics, vol. 23, no. 4, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12942-024-00363-w.
Roy, S. “Disability, Education and Employment: A Regional Comparison in India.” National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (NILERD), https://www.nilerd.ac.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/Article3_Roy.pdf.
Saggurti, Niranjan, et al. “Patterns of Migration and Its Association with Health and Social Protection in India: A Cross-Sectional Study.” PLOS ONE, vol. 15, no. 11, 2020, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7659404/.
Singh, S., Cotts, K.G., Maroof, K.A., Dhaliwal, U., Singh, N., & Xie, T. “Disability-Inclusive Compassionate Care: Disability Competencies for an Indian Medical Graduate.” Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, vol. 9, no. 3, 2020, pp. 1719–1727. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1211_19. PMID: 32509678; PMCID: PMC7266227.
