In his letter dated May 18, 2009, the Hon. President of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) writes to the government for empowering visually challenged chartered accountants. This letter, addressed to the Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, is considered to be a great gesture by visually impaired persons. The letter, in its entirety, is produced below:

No.1-CA(RepCom)/2009
May 18, 2009

Shri K.M. Acharya
Secretary to the Govt. of India
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
Shastri Bhawan
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Marg
New Delhi – 110 001.

Dear Sir

Sub.: Empowerment of visually challenged Chartered Accountants

The Government of India has enacted “The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 to give effect to the Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of the People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region. Section 33 of the aforesaid Act provides for reservation of posts in appropriate Government establishments for persons with disabilities.

I am informed that the posts identified by the Government for persons with visual disability includes Principal, Teacher, Librarian, Law Officers, Statisticians, Research Officers, Director/Manager of HR & Admin, Public Relations Officers, Development Officers etc. I am further informed that the posts identified do not include finance and accounts functions.

You may be aware that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is a statutory body set up by an Act of Parliament viz. The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 to regulate the profession of Chartered Accountants. Chartered Accountants, as professionals, are today involved in ensuring financial discipline, transparency in financial transactions, monitoring of financial activities and in auditing the financial statements prepared by corporates and others. The education and training programme of the Institute for qualification of Chartered Accountancy is itself designed to ensure that our members have a varied range of skills from financial accounting to financial management, costing, legal skills, amongst others. The Institute is also the only mandated body in this country for setting accounting standards and standards for disclosure. The members of the Institute are governed by strict code of ethics enforced by the Institute.

You may kindly appreciate that the Chartered Accountants, by virtue of their education and training, are best equipped to handle jobs relating to finance and accounts. Moreover, many of the jobs identified by the Government for visually challenged persons require the same level of eye sight as is required for discharging functions relating to finance and accounts.

I would request you to kindly consider enlarging the posts identified for visually challenged persons to cover areas relating to finance and accounts and consider visually challenged Chartered Accountants for such positions.

Thanking you

Yours faithfully
CA. UTTAM PRAKASH AGARWAL

We, at Eyeway, hope that this letter will open up a host of avenues for visually impaired persons.