From the States

Kolkata

New Delhi

2,000 posts identified in West Bengal

The state government has asked all its departments to identify posts in their respective office in which physically challenged persons can be recruited. Assistant commissioner of the state public works department Mr KS Adhikary said that the Union government has already identified nearly 2,000 posts in government offices where physically challenged persons can be recruited. The state government has also asked all its departments to identify the posts where disabled persons can be recruited.

Source: Disabled Workers. The Statesman, Daily, Kolkata, 20 May 2007. 

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Clearing the IAS does not guarantee placement

There is hope if you persevere. Kumar Avikal Manu had cleared the civil service examination once before, but he was told that his polio afflicted right arm made him ineligible. Last week, he cracked the examination, again with his left hand.

Avikal’s name is buried deep in the list of 474 candidates that cleared the civil services examination. He was ranked fourth among the disabled this year, the same rank that he had achieved in the 2004 examination, when the government rejected him, on medical grounds.

“I had used all the means there were, the Right to Information Act to get the status of my case and petitioning the disability commission for a direction to the government,” said the 29-year-old political science student.

Nothing worked, however. Earlier this year, Avikal even moved to the Delhi High Court to plead for his case.

But he never lost faith in himself or the bureaucratic system that was keeping him out. “How can I not have faith in a system that I aspire to be a part of? Of course, it can improve I intend to play my role within the system,” he said.

When nothing seemed to be going right, Avikal finally “mustered the courage last year to reappear for the examination”. His perseverance finally paid off. “This was my last attempt,” said the 29-year-old, a hint that it was a “now-or-never” battle that he had been fighting.

Officials at the department of personnel and training say that Avikal need not worry this time. Not after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention that prompted government departments to clearly list out services where the disabled can join.

Source: Differently abled fights system to enter IAS. The Hindustan Times, Daily, New Delhi, 22 May 2007.

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Access in the New Delhi Railway Station

The plight of people using wheelchairs is most felt in the New Delhi Railway station.

Those who visit the station need to line-up for the two functional wheelchairs available – of the five present in the station, three are non-functional. The coolies too, add to their woes, as they demand astronomically high prices to ferry a person. One cannot even complain to the station manager because it is not their responsibility; only the coolies can get you the wheelchairs, they say!

On each side of the New Delhi Railway station, there are two counters where the coolies can get the wheelchair after submitting their badges.

But according to the coolies, there are only one or two wheelchairs that are in good condition, and the rest are just left abandoned in a corner of the station. There is also one wheelchair in the station manager’s office reserved for VIPs.

Moreover, there is no maintenance,” said one coolie, adding that it would cost at least Rs 200 to ferry a passenger from platform number 5 to the exit gate of Paharganj. The actual charge for getting a wheelchair is Rs 20 plus the ferrying charge.

According to railway sources, the wheelchairs have been donated by philanthropic organizations. “Out of these four available at the station, two have been donated by the ‘Rotary Viklang Kendra’. But the authorities are not even able to maintain them.”

The officials, however, hold that these are just mere excuses given by the coolies to get passengers to cough up more money and that there is sufficient number of wheelchairs available at the station. “Last time when we checked the number of wheelchairs were six. Though I cannot remember the present figure, I feel that there is a sufficient number of wheelchairs available at the station,” said Rakesh Saxena, the Division Railway Manager, Northern Railway.

About the high amounts charged by the coolies for ferrying handicap persons, Saxena said that no such case has been reported till date. He also added that the attendant of the person could also ferry the person on their own.

Source: Physically challenged not given their due. The Pioneer, Daily, New Delhi. 16 May 2007.

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Selected but not accepted…

Even as the disabled rejoiced that 18 of their kind have been selected in the 2006 civil service batch the highest number in any one batch there was no cause for cheer for the visually impaired. They have been cheated of the quota Parliament promised them in the Disability Act 1995. The 3% quota for the disabled is supposed, under the Act to be equally shared between three categories of disability 1% each for those visually impaired, hearing and orthopaedically impaired. By law, therefore, there ought to have been at least 4-5 visually-impaired persons in the selected list of 474 candidates. Instead, there is just one.

Visually-impaired candidates, at least five of whom reached the interview stage of the civil service examination, were in deep despair after hearing the results. “This is gross injustice to us. How come all of us who did well enough in our written examination to quality for the interview that not one of us qualified?” asked one of the candidates.

Apparently, in the advertisement for the 2006 civil service examination there was no vacancy advertised for the visually impaired at all. This, despite the fact that five services have been identified for this category IAS, Indian Railway Personnel Service, Indian Postal Service, Indian Ordinance Service and Andaman and Nicobar Civil Service (DANICS).

Source: UPSC turning a blind eye to visually impaired. The Times of India, Daily, New Delhi, 16 May 2007.

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Welfare benefits soon to unorganised sector

India took a step towards a welfare state by announcing that it would soon extend benefits - life and disability cover, health and old age pension - to the 369 million workers in the unorganised sector.

Towards this purpose, a bill would be introduced in parliament's upcoming monsoon session to provide for a National Advisory Board (NAB) that would suggest, monitor and regulate welfare schemes for these workers, said union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi.

The NAB will also ensure that every worker in the unorganised sector above the age of 18 is registered and receives an identity card. This identity card will be her passport for securing welfare benefits in any part of the country, Dasmunsi said after the cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The proposed bill will also provide for similar state level advisory boards in each state.
The cabinet has decided to implement the recommendations of the parliamentary committee on the conditions of the unorganised sector, Dasmunsi said.

The report, placed in parliament towards the end of the budget session, suggests a number of schemes for the welfare and social security of unorganised sector workers, said the minister, who also heads the parliamentary affairs ministry.

The central government is already implementing welfare schemes for some specific occupational groups like fishermen, bidi workers, non-coal mine workers, cine workers and handloom weavers under the National Old Age Pension Scheme and the National Rural Health Mission.

According to Dasmunsi, the government also plans to introduce several other schemes based on the parliamentary committee's recommendations to fulfil the commitment made in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The UPA government is concerned over the plight of the unorganised workers because they constitute 93 percent of the total workforce of the country, he said, citing a sample survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).

Source: India PRwire/Indo Asian News Service,New Delhi, Delhi, India, 2007-05-24 16:45:01

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