At the age of 14, a congenital degenerative eye condition saw darkness envelope the world of Mohith B.P. A special school in Chikkamagaluru district, 25-km from his hometown of Handi, offered the opportunity to finish his schooling.
After that, however, the only path to pursue a dream of independence through employment was to move to Bengaluru — nearly 250-km away from his hometown where his parents run a small farm.
“Very few places offer training in computers and screen reading, and these are in Bengaluru. Whether a technical diploma or jobs, the only opportunities were in Mysuru or Bengaluru…There is no supporting infrastructure for training, or readers or specialised labs in rural areas,” says Mr. Mohith, who now works as an accessibility trainer for the NGO Enable India in Bengaluru.
For the disabled, like Mr. Mohith, any great stride in education or employment stems only in the concrete cities of the State.
Migration
This is indicated in the census 2011 figures on education levels of the disabled population, which was released recently.
In 2001, over 70 per cent of the disabled population lived in rural areas. A decade on, the figure was lesser than 60 per cent. In comparison, the general population in rural areas declined by just 4 per cent in the same period.
“Much of the disabilities empowerment activities, whether it is education or job opportunities, occur in urban areas. Even NGOs focus on urban areas. Out of 41 NGOs, at least 30 work in Bengaluru…Naturally, people tend to move to urban areas,” said S. Babu, assistant director, Association of People with Disabilities.
Women worst hit
However, in this movement for opportunities, women — particularly those denied access to education — seem to be left behind.
Sample this: just one in three of the nearly 47,000 visually-challenged women in rural areas are considered literate. This is in contrast with nearly 60 per cent literacy among the 29,000 disabled men living in the same areas.
“Urban migration is becoming the only way out for most of the disabled, but many families are scared to send women on their own, particularly the visually-disabled. State policy should gear itself towards villages to enable opportunity for access to education,” says Madhu Singhal, Managing Trustee of Mitra Jyothi, an NGO working with the visually-impaired.
The gender disparity is visible in their programmes. While barely 20 per cent of the members of their ‘talking library’, which provides audio books, are women, their computer literacy programmes now has just three women in a class of 20.
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