From the States

Guwahati

Lucknow

Mumbai

New Delhi

Restrictions in Banks

A visually impaired person has moved the Guwahati High Court asking whether banks can restrict blind customers thereby depriving them of the right to operate their accounts like any other "normal" persons not.

Faced with such restriction from his bank Prasanna Kumar Pincha, a visually impaired person and Northeast Regional Manager of Action Aid India, has dragged the IDBI Bank authorities, the Indian Banks Association and he Union of India to the courting the end of April 2006. He has already elected prompt response from Guwahati High Court, which has issued an interim order that Mr Pichna be allowed to open a savings bank account and also be allowed to "normal/usual" operation of the account.

He was recently refused the facility of opening an account in the Guwahati branch of IDBI Bank citing his blinded. But as Mr Pincha insisted, the bank later agreed, but demanded a written understanding which other people are not required to do.

Mr Pincha said: "The bank did this in gross misinterpretation of an order of 5 September, 2005 issued by the deputy commissioner (Disabilities), Government of India and had tried to unilaterally impose arbitrary and unfair condition leaving me to wonder if I was a lesser citizen of India because of my blindness.

The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Disabilities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act of 1995 does not provide for any restriction on blind or other physically challenged persons in opening bank accounts."

The senior Action Aid official who filed a writ petition in Guwahati High Court on 28 April, said the order of the deputy Commissioner (Disabilities), Government of India had, among other things, restricted the enjoyment of cheque facility by visually impaired people and limited it only to issue of crossed cheques and that too for certain specified purposes like payment of phone or electricity bills.

"Not only that the deputy commissioner (Disability) also considered that all blind people invariable put only thumb impressions and that they are incapable of putting signatures," the Mr Pincha said. Admitted the petition, Ranjana Gogoi of Guwahati High Court passed an interim order directing the IDBI bank to allow Mr Pincha to open a saving bank account with cheque book facility "as in the case of persons with no visual impairment or any other disability."

In the next hearing the Court will take up the issue of examining the legality of the order issued by deputy commissioner (disabilities), Government of India on 5 September 2005, disallowing disabled persons, the facility of operating a savings bank account like any other normal person.

Source: HC to the aid of visually impaired. The Statesman, Kolkata, 3 May 2006.

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Awareness can change the Situation

Every minute a child loses sight somewhere in the world. Ninety per cent of all cases of childhood blindness occur in the developing countries like India. And the most regrettable part of this grim situation is that 80 per cent of all childhood eye disorders can be checked effectively if treated early.

Experts and health officials present at the 'Awareness Meeting on Childhood Blindness and Vision Screening Programme' organized by ASHA, a voluntary body at the Ganesh Mandir Higher Secondary School, Khanapara, today underlined the need for generating awareness and working at the grassroots to contain the menace of childhood blindness that is widely prevalent in the country.

ASHA has so far covered over 10,000 children and hopes to cross the one-lakh mark soon. Speaking at the function, Dr. C K Baru, Director of Regional Institute of Ophthalmology said that lack of awareness often came in the way of early detection and timely treatment of childhood blindness.

"Most can be childhood eye disorders can be cured provided these are treated early, and that can happen only when there is early detection. Creating mass awareness on the issue and working at the grassroots by committed NGOs like ASHA can play a crucial role in checking childhood blindness that is so widespread in the North-east," he said.

Dr Harsha Bhattacharjee. Medical director and trustee of Srimata Sankardeva Nethralaya, remarked that it was not just blindness, but the overall health standard of children in India that was deplorable, with a child mortality rate (CMR) as high as 96.5 per thousand births (in poor families). Even among the rich who could afford proper healthcare for their children, the CMR was a disturbing 38 per thousand births revealing the low level of awareness about child health care in the country.

India, incidentally, is among the top four countries with the highest number of underweiweight children. Dr Partha Gogoia, Regional director, Ministry of Health and family Welfare, Government of India, stressed the need for including the overall healthcare aspects of the child while undertaking drives for preventing childhood blindness.

"Low vision and various eye disorders are often linked to poor diet and other deficiencies in healthcare. It is, therefore, imperative that our strategy to combat blindness takes into account the overall maintenance of health," he said.

Minoo Bhuyan, the Principal of the Ganesh Mandir HS School who presided over the meeting, said that on many occasions the school authorities came across children with low eyesight. "But many of them do not even know that their vision is lower than normal," she said. She lauded the role played by NGOs like ASHA in disseminating information on childhood blindness and creating mass awareness on the front.

Source: Awareness crucial in containing childhood blindness. Assam Tribune, Guwahati, 4 May 2006.

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UP increases Budget

What can be termed as a short but step towards alleviation of the suffering of handicapped people in UP, the state government has finally woken up and increased the annual budgetary allocation by three times. What is more, it has decided to pay an additional Rs 800 to each beneficiary annually and bring 7 lakh more beneficiaries into its ambit.

In order to bring more physically challenged people under the purview of its pension scheme, the state government has hiked the budget allocation from last year's Rs 35 crore to Rs 130 crore for the current financial year.

There are about 35 lakh handicapped in the state out of which only 8 lakh are eligible for a monthly pension. Earlier, only 2 lakh people were being benefited under the scheme. But now with the new budgetary sanction, about 7 lakh more handicapped people will be benefited by the scheme. The Government will also hike the annual pension by Rs 800 and now each beneficiary will receive Rs 1800.

"Also we are trying to make the budget more gender sensitive. So while including the new list of beneficiaries under the scheme we are trying to make it sure that one-third of the beneficiaries are women," said Sushil Kumar, director, department of Handicapped Welfare. "The census does not cover all the handicapped and we still do not have any effective mechanism to trace people eligible for the pension and financial support. The departments will also conduct a statewise survey to trace those people who had yet not been covered under the pension scheme," said the director.

Sushil Kumar opined that the intellectual capabilities of the handicapped persons could not be undermined. They do not just need a monthly pension for sustenance but proper work opportunities to prove themselves.

Source: UP govt spares a though for handicapped, finally. The Pioneer, Lucknow, 1 May 2006.

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Accessibility in Courts

The Bombay High Court will soon be accessible to all. A portable ramp, which will enable wheelchair-bound persons to attend court proceedings, was installed on a test-run bass in courtroom No.52 on the second floor of the court building.

There was a sizeable crowd outside the second-floor court room, where the Chief Justice presides over hearing after court hours, watching Milesh Singit of ADAPT (Able Disabled All People Together), an NGO, and design engineer Abhishek Ray overseeing the installation of the hydraulic ramp on one of the doors leading to the courtroom.

The ramp was installed and tested for its capacity to support a wheelchair-bound person. It will enable to wheel in a physically challenged person straight onto the raised platform in the courtroom.

"The ramp is quite compact and can be stored under the raised platform. It can be taken out whenever required and cam be installed easily by two persons," said Sigit, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

"This would be a first for any high court," said lawyer Jamshed Mistry, who has represented the cause of the physically challenged in several cases.

"It has been agreed that the wheelchair-bond person would come in before the proceeding begin so that he/she could be let in without disrupting the proceedings.

There had already been a ramp on the ground floor to enable physically handicapped persons to enter and use the elevators. But this was the first time that the facility was installed in individual courtrooms.

The Bombay High Court directed the charity commissioner's office to provide employment to Pankaj Choudhari, a visually impaired person, as soon as post suitable for him fell vacant.

The direction was passed while hearing a petition filed by Choudhari, who was found ineligible for the post of clerk typist at the charity commissioner's office despite having the requisite qualifications and securing the highest marks in the written test. The petition alleged that at the interview stage, Choudhary was humiliated by the panelists who asked him to read the newspaper and identify the number of fingers one of them had raised. On February 9, the HC had restrained the charity commissioner from filling up posts reserved for disabled persons.

The state government told the court the though Choudhari had been allowed to sit the exam, the post required a persons with partial visibility.

The state argued that there was no discrimination in the selection procedure. The court was informed that Chaudhari was first on the waiting list for employment as soon as a post fell vacant.

Source: Disabled will wheel into HC. DNA (Daily), Mumbai, 4 May 2006.

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Rules are meant to be Disregarded?

Last year when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a three per cent reservation in IAS posts for people with disabilities, the joy of Sumita Gogra knew no bounds.

Suffering from 90 per cent disability in her upper limbs, Sumita Dogra's dream was to become an IAS officer. But with only two weeks to go for her IAS exams (Preliminary), while her peers are pouring over books, Sunita is running from pillar top post to fight the apathy that commonly afflicts government officials while dealing with rules meant to facilitate equal opportunity to a disabled candidate.

Central Department of personnel and training (DoPT) has denied permission to her request for using services of a scribe. Javed Abidi, convenor of disabled rights group alleges: "Civil Services Examination (Preliminary) is on May 14. But thanks to the DoPT apathy, this girl's dreams are being shattered. She is an exceptional scholar and a winner of president's medal for being a role model for disabled people."

But what is more disappointing is, she says, her request to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to intervene in her case has not helped.

Mr Abidi pointed: "A few years ago, in a similar case, the Rajasthan high court had ruled in favour of a disabled boy with muscular dystrophy, who wanted to appear for the State public Services Commission examination and needed the help of a scribe to write. Several examination/competition bodies, for example the CBSE, have brought about reforms in the last few years and the facility o ascribe is permitted to people with upper limb disability. But the UPSC that conducts these exams has not even responded to a directive sent to it by chief commissioner for persons with disability, after Sunita approached it for justice."

But the reason given by the UPSC to her is shocking, observes Abidi. "Though she can avail the reservation of disabled people, including certain posts identified for candidates with disability in the upper limbs, she is not 'entitled' to a scribe as the DoPT rule says that only visually-impaired candidates are allowed to write the exam using a scribe.'

Source: Disabled Sunita denied scribe by UPSC. Asian Age, New Delhi, 7 May 2006.

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Affirmative Partnerships

"There is a need for partnership between the industry and government to ensure 'affirmative action' for empowering marginalized people to play their role in the development of the nation," said Ashwani Kumar, Minister of state of industry.

Addressing a conference on Disability: Mainstreaming the marginalized' organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the IBM, the minister stressed that such action would be better than enforcement.

Essentially, the vision should go beyond providing means of employment to giving meaning to life. Mr. Kumar urged CII and the corporate sector to go beyond commitments on principle to the actual nuts and bolts. The government would do everything possible to support stated that poverty, illiteracy and disease were the main causes of disability.

Empowering the marginalized sections of society, not only the disabled but all those cut off from the mainstream because of any kind of discrimination, was the government's constitutional and social responsibility, even in this age of globalization, he said.

He admitted before coming to this meet, he was not aware of the magnitude of the employment hurdles faced by the disabled in the country, numbering 70 million, despite the constitutional obligation of 3% reservation f jobs for such people.

Source: Call for affirmative action to empower disabled. Financial Express, New Delhi, 3 May 2006.

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And Accessibility in Parks, too

Delhi is all set to get its first ever disabled-friendly park. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) had decided upon the plush greens around the diplomatic area Nehru Park to develop a model park.

Based on recommendations put forth by Samarthya, an NGO working for promotion of barrier-free environment, the council would preplan for the project in May 2006.

Samarthya recently conducted an accessibility audit of the 75-acre park last month, in which it found simple changes like illuminated signboards, better illumination, ramps and railing, using textured tiles could help improve access.

"The audit was not restricted to the problems faced by persons with mobility-related disabilities. We even looked into the requirements of senior citizens (who suffer from low-vision) and toddlers," said Anjlee Agarwal, Executive director, Samarthya.

"We have emphasized multi lingual signages along with "you are here" maps at strategic locations with bold letters and in a particular contrast. Colours combinations like yellow and white that are difficult to distinguish for those suffering from cataract, and hence should be avoided. Also, the use of too many colors on a map is confusing," she said.

It has been recommended to use different textured flooring at every turn or junction on a walkway, as the change can cue a person about a turn. "It was observed the park had few resting benches. We have suggested more resting areas at regular intervals (100 meters) along the tracks/ walkways on both sides alternatively," said Anjlee.

Source: Nehru place Park to be disabled-friendly. The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 8 May 2006

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