Scientific understanding of autism spectrum disorder has advanced, but stigma and systemic gaps are what truly hold autistic Indians back, Dr Ritu Jha, director and HOD of neurology at Sarvodaya Hospital, Sector-8, Faridabad, shared in an interview with HT Lifestyle. Also read | Can autism or ADHD be diagnosed in adulthood? Psychologist shares what they look like in adults
“While there has been a lot of scientific progress in understanding autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there are still many social barriers that prevent access to resources and inclusion for those diagnosed with ASD,” Dr Jha said. “Misunderstandings about autism exist throughout the healthcare and education systems and in our communities, and create a poor perception of autistic people,” she added.
Reframing autism as neurodiversity
WHO estimates 1 in 127 people globally have ASD. In India, research shows about 1 percent of children are autistic — a population whose needs and strengths remain widely misunderstood. Dr Jha said the core fix is conceptual: “The idea that autism is a disorder requires treatment remains among the most common misconceptions surrounding autism,” she explained.
“This specific misconception results in misunderstanding about the very nature of autism. Autism is not simply a form of illness acquired during one’s life. It is a neurodevelopmental disability, emerging at an early point in development and ultimately shaping the way in which one’s brain will process information and interpret its environment,” she added.
She backed the neurodiversity movement, which ‘views neurological differences as being part of the spectrum of normal human diversity as opposed to being unacceptable aberrations that should be tried to be eliminated’.
Dr Jha pushed back on 3 persistent myths
1. Emotional indifference: “Individuals diagnosed with autism frequently develop intense emotional connection to other people, and they feel empathy in its purest form,” she clarified, adding, “The anxiety, sensory overload, or alternative communication method that an autistic person may exhibit will not always be interpreted or seen as indifference or withdrawal by most people.”
2. Parent blame: “The frequent talk of autism causing parents to parent poorly… has been proven wrong over and over again through decades of scientific studies. Stigmatising the parents of a child with autism can delay them from seeking assistance, increase their emotional distress, and lead to increased social isolation,” Dr Jha shared.
3. Vaccine links: “Numerous worldwide studies involving millions of children have demonstrated that vaccines are not associated with autism,” she stressed, calling the persistence of this misinformation ‘very troubling’ and contrary to public health efforts.
The cost of stereotypes
Treating autism as a single ‘type’ hurts diagnosis and care. Dr Jha said, “The reality is that autism is not just a range from mild to severe; it has numerous strengths, challenges, needs for support, and life experiences. Many autistic individuals have excellent abilities in areas such as analytical reasoning, memory, pattern recognition, creativity, technology, and problem-solving. Reducing autism to a specific stereotype diminishes these differences and leads to unrealistic expectations.”
In India, early signs are often dismissed as phases or parenting issues. The result: missed windows for early intervention. “By the time parents seek professional assessment, numerous opportunities for early intervention have already been lost,” she said, impacting development, communication, and school participation.
Adults are largely invisible in policy. “Autism is a lifelong condition,” Dr Jha warned, meaning systems must adopt ‘a comprehensive, lifelong model of service delivery’. Also read | Autism: Symptoms, challenges, myths and tips to create a strong support system
3 systems that must change
Dr Jha called for overhauls in education, employment, and healthcare:
1. Education: “Inclusion cannot be measured only through enrolment; true inclusion means creating classrooms that are flexible enough for different learning styles,” she said. The goal: systems ‘that allow autistic students to participate in the education system without having to conform to a rigid, standardized education system’.
2. Employment: Hiring filters out talent. “Traditional interview processes often place more value on social skills than on an applicant’s actual abilities,” Dr Jha observed. “Organisations that work to remove barriers to employment are not engaging in charity; they are tapping into an underutilised group of very capable individuals,” she added.
3. Healthcare: Routine developmental screenings should be standard in pediatric care, with frontline workers trained to spot early differences. She also flagged rural gaps, stressing the need to ‘provide families with access to various service providers throughout rural areas, which tend to have few specialised providers of evidence-based services’.
“The biggest obstacle that an autistic individual faces is not autism but the mismatch between social norms and the variety of brains,” Dr Jha stated. “To be inclusive, we must go beyond knowing; we must question our own assumptions, change our systems, and understand that everyone has something to contribute, so this should be welcomed as a reality rather than a problem to solve,” she concluded.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
