Three per cent reservation has been provided for the disabled in the Central Civil Services since 2005. However, information provided by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) tells a disappointing story of representation of disabled people in Central government. Out of over 24 lakh employees belonging to Group A, B and C, the total number of persons employed from disabled category was merely 5,014 on January 1, 2012.
Enthusiasm to vote turned into disappointment for many when they had to return without exercising right of franchise, here on Monday. Reliance of those engaged into election duty on manual rolls at polling booths belied tall claims of Election Commission (EC) going hi-tech. SMS service and toll-free telephone lines for providing voters with information also crashed on the polling day, strengthening the argument from many that the EC proved unequal to the task on this front.
Coimbatore Collectorate grievances meeting: Uneven roads, open sewerages, stray dogs pose a threat to differently abled persons, especially the visually challenged..
The All Differently abled Traders’ Welfare Association on Monday petitioned the district administration demanding that pedestrian pathways be made differently abled friendly.
In a release, the association said that at many places, pavements along the roads were uneven or the lids of sewerage system were removed.
Visually-impaired Dhananjay Bhole prefers to walk on the road as he finds manoeuvring his way through the many obstructions on city pavements rather hazardous. Fast-moving vehicles do not scare him as much as unexpected elevations and descents, broken tiles, dug pits, tress or their branches hanging low.
Finding a responsible person to do the writing for them in the examination hall is no less a source of tension for blind students than the problems created by their disability. Lack of writers is particular painful for blind students studying for an advanced degrees in universities.
Jaydev Thakkar is a blind student studying for a BEd degree. Despite his disability, he is working hard to clear the exams so that he can become a teacher. "I want to be independent. Education is the only stick which will help me find my way in life," he said.
Miranda Tomkinson, 35, a visually-challenged and hearing-impaired postgraduate, failed twice in his UGC exam despite hard work and preparation, simply because the Braille question paper was not available for him and he could not hear the scribe because of his disability. He hopes to clear the exam this December if he gets a Braille question paper. He had given several petitions to the UGC but received no response.
They have qualified under the special B.Ed degree category but are not considered for jobs
Visually-impaired teachers are waging a difficult battle.
They may have qualified under the special B.Ed degree category but are not considered for jobs.
Then there are the sighted persons who have undergone special training to teach the visually-challenged students; their course is either not recognised by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) or they have not received salaries for several years.
A visually impaired athlete who had participated in national level para sports meet was sexually harassed by an autorickshaw driver in Old City area on Wednesday. The 23-year-old athlete had gone to meet her sister at Mau district and reached city around 10pm.
Meghalaya High Court yesterday directed the state government to release a visually-impaired man, Lackson S Sangma, arrested along with 25 other volunteers of Garo Hills State Movement Committee (GHSMC) during a statehood demonstration last month.
Justice S R Sen, while expressing displeasure over the failure of the police to produce the victim in court today, directed the police to hand over Sangma to his guardians.
Shortchanging of passengers has often led to frayed tempers on buses. But a visually impaired man hailing from Thoothukudi who staged a protest after a bus conductor shortchanged him by a rupee, ended up being thrashed by half-a-dozen policemen in Madurai on Monday.
The police and bus crew however have accused the victim E Sankarapandi (28) of causing public nuisance in a drunken state. According to Sankarapandi, he had boarded a bus to Tirunelveli from Madurai on Monday evening. “The conductor issued me a concessional ticket for `28 instead of `27.
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