The Supreme Court today directed Delhi University to file an affidavit explaining the measures being undertaken to safeguard the interests of persons with disabilities in the proposed four-year bachelor’s degree course.

“You put it an affidavit, the various measures being undertaken by you and their (petitioner’s) grievances and what steps you are taking to address it,” the apex court told the university’s counsel while posting the matter for further hearing on Wednesday.

A bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Dipak Misra passed the order while dealing with a petition filed by Sambhavana, an organisation championing the cause of visually handicapped persons. The organisation had filed the petition challenging the refusal of Delhi High Court last week to stay the proposed four-year course planned from July.

Delhi University (DU) has proposed the four-year undergraduate course to replace the current three-year bachelor’s programme. The move has evoked widespread resentment among teachers, students and parents, who feel the varsity is tinkering with the traditional system without adequate debate among various stakeholders.

Sambhavana has contended that the high court, while refusing to stay the move, has “erred” in not considering its apprehensions that requirements of visually impaired students have been grossly neglected (in the university proposal).

It said students with disabilities will be forced to study mathematics and science without the reading material and laboratories being accessible and absence of trained teachers.

“Disability as a perspective is totally missing in the curriculum of courses. Leave apart the requirement of establishing a disability study centre in Delhi University, even these newly drafted syllabuses of political science, English and Hindi literature, history, sociology, economics and social works, etc., completely exclude disability component and perspective.

“Hence, another generation of DU pass-outs in the 21st century will remain ignorant of the issue of disability. It is all the more appalling for an academic institution of the stature of DU to underestimate the significance of this subject when other (newly coming up) universities, UGC, NCERT and CBSE have been actively designing modules on disability and including them in their curriculum. Hence, before giving approval to these new courses, this lacuna must be removed,” the petition said.

It also said: “It is pertinent to mention here that in case the four years’ undergraduate programme is implemented, the student with visual impairment shall not be able to meet the requirements of the foundation course in the first year of the four-year undergraduate programme as the same contains a bouquet of 11 courses which includes mathematical ability and science.”
According to the petition, the university ought to introduce bridge courses for mathematics and science for students with impaired vision so they can also be given a level-playing field to pursue the foundation course.

The petition said DU belatedly — after the organisation challenged the new curriculum in the high court — issued a notification on May 14, saying that a committee of 14 academicians has been constituted to look into the special needs of students with disabilities.

Source: The Telegraph