A visually impaired person on Monday took charge as the judge of a Munsif Court in the city, claimed to be the first in Tamil Nadu, perhaps in India.

The 41-year old T T Chakravarthy, native of Arcot in Vellore District, was practicing in the district court there and later enrolled at Madras High Court.

After successfully writing TNPSC, he was called for the judges training and got 13th place in the examination in 2008.

One of the features that distinguishes Doordarshan from private news channels is a special news programme for persons with hearing disability: the anchor ‘tells’ news through sign languages, covering everything from politics to sports and the weather.

Though no other news channel gives such job opportunities, the Delhi University’s Equal Opportunity Cell is working towards more hearing-impaired students getting the training needed for such work. The course starts this August.

With more than 1,500 seats on offer, Delhi University and its affiliated colleges are doing all they can to encourage physically challenged students to enroll.

Many DU colleges, including Khalsa, Miranda House, Sri Ram College of Commerce, Hindu, Gargi, Kamla Nehru, Janki Devi Memorial college and Lady Sri Ram College are ready to welcome their special students with lifts, ramps, specially designed toilets and libraries equipped with resources.

In 2008, DU was able to fill a mere 386 of its 1,500 seats. 

With a view to giving convenience to physically challenged people, the Railways have decided to provide special facilities in over 1,500 stations in the country.
Special facilities like access ramps, reserved parking slots, low height water taps and suitable toilets for differently-abled people will be developed in phases at important railway stations, a senior Railway Ministry official said.

Physically challenged people have reasons to cheer up. The railways, which has been the largest employer in government service, has decided to re-start recruitment process under the disabled category. In the first phase of recruitment process, the railways would fill up vacancies of about 4,254 posts in group C and D categories across the country.

According to sources, the railways have fixed a time frame for completing this recruitment process. In fact, the railways would launch a special drive to fill up backlog of vacancies of physically challenged persons in the railways.

He cannot see but was determined to open the eyes of administration. More than his poverty, 26-year-old Ratna Al, it was authorities turning blind eye to development works in his village that pained him.

A native of Rangpar, a dusty hamlet of 750 people in Wankaner taluka, Ratna used Right to Information (RTI). Ratna has put the village on development track. A neat two-km road has replaced the stony path connecting it to highway. The thorny gando bawal shrubs that dotted the roadside are now being cleared regularly and Rangpar is getting the facelift.

To facilitate physically challenged students, who often complain of discrimination and difficulty in finding employment, Delhi University Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC) announced a new certificate course in news reading, anchoring and voice over, at a counselling session on Tuesday.

“The media sector is an up and coming field, and we feel disabled students must have the means to gain employment in the field,” said Chandra Nisha Singh, OSD of the cell.

President Pratibha Patil had once blindfolded herself to experience the life of a visually impaired person but says she could not bear it even for an hour.

"Whenever I interacted with blind people, I thought how they lived their life? I even blindfolded myself to know what will be my life without light. But I could not remain like that even for an hour," she recalled today while receiving the first copy of a book on the struggle of a blind girl Siddhi.

The evolution of the glorious game of cricket has seen new entrant T20 add another dimension to the sport galvanising its popularity with the mainstream masses.

Cricket in India is undeniably a religion and the country has enthusiastically embraced the Indian Premier League and all its trimmings.  In keeping with the development of the game, the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI ) is organising the  inaugural Indian Blind Cricket League (IBCL) in February 2010 in the country’s capital New Delhi.