SPECIAL EDUCATION TODAY IN INDIA Ajay Das and Rina Shah ABSTRACT Similar to Western countries, the early origins of special education in India started with Christian missionaries and nongovernmental agencies which stressed a charity model of serving populations such as the visually, hearing, and cognitively impaired. However after its indepen- dence from Great Britain in 1947, the Indian government became more involved in providing educational, rehabilitation, and social services. Thus over the past four decades, India has moved gradually toward an inclusive education model. This chapter discusses the implementation of such a model related to the prevalence and incidence rates of disability in India as well as working within family environments that often involve three to four generations. Also included are challenges that an inclusive education system faces in India, namely, a high level of poverty, appropriate teacher preparation of special education teachers, a lack of binding national laws concerned with inclusive education, a dual govern- mental administration for special education services, and citizen’s and special education professionals strong concern about whether inclusive education practices can be carried out. Special Education International Perspectives: Practices Across the Globe Advances in Special Education, Volume 28, 561À581 Copyright r 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0270-4013/doi:10.1108/S0270-401320140000028025 561