Twenty years ago, if you were a vegetarian traveling to the United States, it was slim pickings. If you ate eggs, you got your protein through omelettes and quiches, but if you were strictly veg, you ate a lot of French Fries and grilled cheese sandwiches. If you visited people in their homes, chances are they had no idea what to feed you. You probably got a lot of salad and no end of people asking you how you stayed so healthy on so little food.

You soon realized two things: as a guest, you were a pain in the neck so you probably didn’t get many invitations to dinner. And if you did get invited, you felt awkward and you left hungry.

In a meat-centric nation, as a vegetarian, you were excluded.

By contrast, India’s cuisine is the most inclusive in the world. A vegetarian diet caters to everyone. The basic diet suits us all and is endlessly adaptable: Are your guests Jain? Leave the lasun/piaz out. So what? Masala rules! Guests who can’t handle mirchi? Two tarkas.

And if your guests are meat-eaters? Well, they will not feel awkward and they will not leave hungry. They have not been excluded. If they desperately crave meat, they can always stop for a kabab on the way home, but their basic right to a good meal has not been denied.

I think we can all agree that Indian food is the most various and the most amazing in the world. But its true beauty is that it is an inclusive cuisine. No one (assuming of course they have access to food!) is left with an empty stomach.

Today – World Day for the Disabled – this understanding of inclusion is important. When we plan for the most vulnerable person (and who is more vulnerable that someone who is hungry?), the system works better for everyone.

When we approach the inclusion of people with disability as progress, as proof of development – like clean drinking water and good health care – we change the terms of the debate.

Appealing to the public sense of morality or charity or kindness or justice is a mistake. It would be nice if that’s how we got kids with disability into school or adults with disability into the work force. It would be nice if buildings and public transport were made accessible because “it’s the right thing to do”, but, have you noticed? It ain’t happening.

So let’s try self-interest!

Over the past twenty years, America has developed a far more inclusive cuisine. Now, even in small cities, you can find Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Chinese restaurants. And why? Not because people who come from those countries have the right to eat their own diet. Not because Americans have the right to sample dishes from other cultures. No. It’s because people have realized that the food tastes good! They want to buy it.

What can we learn from this?

We have to pitch inclusion in such a way that people want to do it. It has to have sex appeal. It has to make sense to them.

Let’s look at access: Why should a fit, young executive care about whether a building is accessible or not? She is so concerned about her cardiac health that she would never take a lift anyway. She LOVES the stairs. What’s in it for her to put in ramps or an elevator?

One day she has to make a big presentation and her laptop, her LCD projector and her collection of handouts are so heavy she has to stow them all in her wheeled suitcase. No worries! – up the ramp and into the lift – whoosh! When she leaves her office, she wants to take her toddler to a mall for new shoes. She pops him in the pram and pushes him up the ramp. She has elderly parents with painful knee problems and they can’t do stairs anymore. If they are ever going to see her new fifth floor flat, there’s got to be an elevator.

What about education? Why should a parent who has two typical children care whether kids with disabilities are included in his children’s school? What’s in it for him?

HIS kids will get a better education if they go to school with kids who have disability. A teacher who can convey her material successfully to a class which includes kids with learning problems, visual difficulties or hearing impairment is, by definition, a creative teacher. And when she asks for a trained classroom assistant and gets one because she can justify it (she’s got kids with special needs!), all the kids benefit because anyone with fifty learners needs help, whether they have disability or not.

And finally, employment: Why should a healthy, productive citizen with a good job and a decent income care whether people with disabilities get hired? What’s in it for him?

Unemployed people, with disability or not, are a drain on the economy. Mr Citizen’s hard earned money gets taxed to support them and the money they could be earning and being taxed upon doesn’t even come into the picture. That’s tax money that’s not going into better roads, better health care, better schools. What a waste! And when employers make adjustments in the work place for their staff who have disability, that immediately opens the door to more flexible arrangements for everyone. This may worry those employers, but it shouldn’t. Because concepts like flextime, job-sharing, on-site crèches, and tele-commuting all make for a more human, more people-centred work environment – and that translates into job satisfaction and higher productivity.

Inclusion just makes sense. In every possible way, it makes our world a better place for everyone. So let’s stop appealing to people’s better instincts to bring it about. Appeal to their selfishness, their greed, their “what’s in it for me?” attitudes. Then have fun watching their surprise as, willy-nilly, they become better people in the process!

India’s vegetarian cuisine didn’t develop because somebody made a conscious decision to invent a diet which included everyone. It developed from a basic premise that people need to eat and that nothing should be killed to feed them. How we got from that to shahi paneer and dal makhini is all masala and magic.

The basic premise of inclusion is that we are all here. We will keep coming up with new recipes to prove it because that’s what human beings do. Masala and magic! Happy World Disability Day!