ӣ��Ӱ��

Topic

Women with Invisible Disabilities in India: (Life) Stories of "Othering" in the "Marriage Market" and Marital Life

Faculty of Law

Date & location

• Wednesday, November 26, 2025
• 6:00 A.M.
• Virtual Defence

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Sara Ramshaw, Faculty of Law, ӣ��Ӱ�� (Supervisor)
• Dr. Supriya Routh, Faculty of Law, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Nancy Clark, School of Nursing, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Annie Bunting, Department of Social Science, York University

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Emile Fromet de Rosnay, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, UVic

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Indian matrimonial law and broader social structures contribute to the marginalization of women with invisible disabilities—such as, epilepsy, neurodivergence, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder—in the context of marriage and marital life. Despite India’s economic growth, women with invisible disabilities remain subject to stigma and systemic exclusion. Legal provisions in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which allow annulment or divorce on the ground of “mental disorder”, are facially gender-neutral but disproportionately weaponized against women. This raises the central research question: How do social, cultural, religious, and legal factors in India render heterosexual women with invisible disabilities undesirable for marriage, and how do these women themselves perceive the institution of marriage?

The study pursues three main objectives: (1) to interrogate the intersection of law and non-legal factors in producing the “undesirability” of women with invisible disabilities; (2) to foreground the lived experiences of women with invisible disabilities within India’s “marriage market” in order to posit potential socio-legal reforms; and (3) to contribute to the global discourse on disability, gender, and sexuality by centring perspectives from the Global South. Its significance lies in addressing the gap in both disability rights discourse and feminist scholarship, which have often neglected disabled women’s marital and sexual rights.

Methodologically, the project adopts a socio-legal approach, combining doctrinal analysis of Indian jurisprudence with qualitative empirical research. Fieldwork conducted between 2022 and 2024 included in-depth individual interviews with five women with invisible disabilities, twelve expert interlocutors (family lawyers, academics, and disability rights advocates), and surveys of 65 adults. This design enabled a contextual understanding of how law and socio-cultural norms surrounding normative femininity, marriage, and disability operate both in structural frameworks and in the lived experiences of women.

Intersectionality was used as a theoretical lens to unpack the complex intersections of how gender and disability, intersecting with caste, class, rurality, and education, compound restriction of the sexual and marital rights of women with invisible disabilities. Intersectionality as a theoretical lens was complemented by Foucauldian analyses of power and critical disability studies. Foucauldian theory situates law and social norms as disciplinary mechanisms that construct disabled women as “Other,” while critical disability studies highlight how ableism interacts with patriarchal norms to police femininity and sexuality.

Findings reveal that women with invisible disabilities are disproportionately abandoned, divorced, or subjected to annulment proceedings, while economic dependence and cultural stigma constrain their capacity to contest such outcomes. Yet, women’s narratives also highlight forms of resistance, from reinterpreting marriage to asserting agency beyond it.

In conclusion, the dissertation demonstrates that Indian matrimonial law, in conjunction with entrenched cultural and social hierarchies, perpetuates discrimination against women with invisible disabilities. By centring Indian women’s voices, the study challenges dominant frameworks of disabled sexuality, critiques the gender-neutral façade of the law, and advances recommendations for socio-legal reforms.