Education
Remains Elusive for India's Disabled
A. Ramakrishnan
OneWorld South Asia
20 September 2004
NEW DELHI, Sept 20 (OneWorld) - A newly released country-wide survey
on the enrolment of disabled children in India's educational institutions
reveals only a fraction of them obtain admission, impelling rights
activists to present a draft plan for integrating them in the educational
mainstream and curbing discrimination.
At a seminar on the subject in India 's capital, New Delhi last week,
Javed Abidi, Director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment
for Disabled People (NCPEDP), stressed, "We have to educate our
disabled children!"
The survey results show education in India has no place for the disabled.
The 119 universities that responded to the survey reported the enrolment
of only 1635 disabled students. Universities located in New Delhi
like the prestigious Delhi University and premier medical college,
the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, didn't even care to respond.
The survey says only 679 students were admitted to the 96 colleges
from across India which participated in it.
Schools displayed an even greater bias.
only 382 students with disabilities were enrolled in the 89 schools
that responded, while about 18 of them cited the existence of "special
schools" as reason enough to refrain from doing so.
The draft blueprint presented includes the establishment of high-powered
committees under the Central Advisory Board of Education in India,
the inclusion of disability training in the curriculum of regular
school teachers, increased and equal availability of Braille and Talking
books (audio based learning material) and a barrier-free environment
for easy accessibility.
Significantly, very few schools in India currently provide such facilities.
One of the exceptions is the St Mary's convent school in New Delhi.
The school's principal, Annie Koshi feels just as most Indian schools
have introduced Information Technology (IT) in the curriculum, they
should also provide disabled friendly furniture and other facilities
like lifts, railings etc to accomodate such students.
The participants, who included disabled rights activists, educationists
and government functionaries, called for a paradigm shift in priorities,
lobbying for "special education" to be shifted
from the the federal ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to
the Human Resource Development ministry.
They also highlighted the need for policy level changes, like making
educational institutions responsible through the establishment of
monitoring mechanisms.
India 's 22 million disabled people continue to face neglect, despite
the existence of a slew of legal provisions to protect their rights,
both at the national and international levels.
Under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, all Indian citizens are
entitled to equal rights and protection of laws. Interestingly, the
Constitution also permits positive discrimination for the disabled
-- of crucial importance to the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
The Act holds the state responsible for the education of disabled
persons till the age of 18, and stipulates a three per cent reservation
for them in all government educational institutions.
The Indian government's ongoing Education For All movement also pledges
equal education opportunities for all children, including the disabled,
even though it is not enforced.
As NCPEDP survey shows the ground reality remains dismal.
For the small percentage of the disabled who can afford education,
it has been an uphill battle all the way. Take the case of middle-aged
Salil Chaturvedi, who is orthopedically challenged, and now heads
his own company. Early in life, he was forced to abandon his dream
of training to become a doctor, due to his dependence on others.
Afflicted by cerebral palsy, Samuel Mani, who is employed in the IT
sector, also recounts his struggle to establish himself. He moved
to a normal school from a special one, due to the feeling of isolation
it engendered.
As he emphasizes, "Normal schools and colleges teach you about
normal lives -- a life which we all have to live. The main thing is
to be seen by other people."
Apart from the lack of education at the elementary level, disabled
persons are later barred from obtaining higher education as well.
Admits educationist S. C. Handa, who uses technology to help the hearing
impaired, "There are a lot of seats available, but we can't educate
the disabled first of all at the primary and secondary level."
While the group did not entirely discount the need for special schools,
they stressed the need to mainstream disabled children and youth in
normal ones.
Special schools are viewed as artificial environments, harming both
disabled and normal children, due to the lack of exposure to each
other. Special schools do not offer standardized curricula, a major
problem which Poonam Natarajan, a teacher from the south Indian city
of Chennai , feels does not equip students for future careers.
There were some encouraging signs from the Indian government, though.
Rajashekharan Pillai, vice chairman of the University Grants Commission
- India 's apex body governing higher education, said schemes to make
colleges disabled-friendly were in the pipeline.
Likewise, Ashish Kumar, director of the federal ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment said some ministries had schemes to provide
grants to the disabled, many of which fail to see the light of day
thanks to bureaucracy or sheer ignorance about their existence.
In the future, Abidi plans to use consumer organizations to represent
the cause of the disabled. For him, the biggest crisis facing them
is the complete lack of role models and leaders, adding that they
need to fight for their rights as a group.
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