People of Value

New Delhi: A Leader, despite his Disability

Only a few years ago, Che Guangcheng, a blind man who taught himself the law, was hailed as a champion of peasant rights who symbolized China's growing embrace of legal norms.

Chen helped other people with disabilities avoid illegal fees and taxes. He forced a paper mill to stop spewing toxic chemical into his village's river. The authorities in his home province, Shandong, considered him a propaganda coup and broadcast clips from his wedding ceremony on television.

All that changed last year, when he organized a rare class-action lawsuit against the local government for forcing peasants into late-term abortions and sterilization. Chen, 35, is now a symbol of something else: the tendency of Communist Party officials to use legal pretext to crush dissent.

A court in Yinan Country of Shandong Province was scheduled to hear charges on Thursday that Chen destroyed public property and gathered crowd to block traffic. His lawyers argue that he would have had trouble committing those crimes even of he could see. At the time they were said to have occurred, he was being guarded day and night by a team of local officials.

His case is typical of efforts to punish lawyers, journalists and participants in environmental, health and religious groups who expose abuses or organize people in a manner that officials consider threatening. Like Chen, they are often accused of fraud, illicit business practices or leaking state secrets, charges that do not reflect the political nature of their offenses.

"Local officials made Chen's house into a jail and turned him into a prisoner long before he faced any charges," said Li Jinsong, one of his lawyers. "Then they concocted charges so they could send him to an actual jail".

The purview of Chinese law was broad enough to allow a self-taught peasant like Chen, dubbed a "barefoot lawyer," to emerge from obscurity and help set some legal precedents in him home province. Since he got into trouble, Chen has relied on a network of scholars and lawyers in Beijing to defend him.

But the law does not protect those who offend the powerful. Local Communist party officials control prosecutors and judges in their domains, and they can use the legal system to carry out political persecutions.

Nature dealt Chen his biggest challenge. He lost his sight after a childhood illness and did not attend school until he was 18. When he did go to school, he quickly encountered legal problems.

Chin's government exempts the blind from taxes and fees. But Chen often did not service such benefits, according to relatives who asked to remain anonymous because the authorities have threatened to punish them for speaking to reporters. Determined to realize his legal rights, he studied law on his own, recruiting his four older bothers to read legal tests to him.

In 1994 he went to Beijing to protest against the violations of laws that protect the handicapped. While there, he took action against the Beijing subway authority because attendants would not let him ride free.

Rakishly handsome in his dark glasses, he became a popular legal crusader. He handled cases against the local sanitation bureau, the police and the bureau of commerce. So when residents of his home village of Dongshigu were ensnared in a coercive birth control campaign that appeared to violate national laws, last spring they turned to Chen.

Source: Blind man can't make China see. The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 21 July 2006.

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For a Humanitarian Cause

Dr.S.Sunder is a musician, a physiatrist specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation, founder-editor of Shwani, a magazine on Carnatic music, and a short story writer too. He is also the founder and managing trustee of Freedom Trust, medical director of Prem Center for Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Medicine and author of a textbook on rehabilitation Medicine and a brochure on ergonomic solutions.

Dr. Sunder completed his M.B.B.S from Stanley Medical College in 1984 and a Bachelor's degree in Indian Music from Madras University. Besides awards in the field of physical and rehabilitation medicine, he won the Tamil Nadu Government's Kalaimamani Award.

He is familiar with English, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam and can read and write Bengali, French and Marathi, He is involved in spreading awareness of disability. One who learnt music at the age of 12, Dr.Sunder has performed several concerts with his guru. D.K. Jayaraman. "My task is to look at a patient with disability in a holistic manner,' he says. A person who has lost his little finger is considered one with a mild disability. But what if he is a veena player or a violinist, he asks.

This motivated him to take up the job of providing custom-made limbs at rehabilitations camps, which he has conducted since the Freedom Trust was founded in 1997. The hands include one with a sickle for a farmer, a comb for a barber and a power grip hand for a car driver.

"It pains me to see amputees crawling to the camps." He says, pointing out that today the facilities have become so advanced that a person without a limb can not only walk but can also run or climb mountains with artificial limbs and assistance. His other interest is Sishu Punarjanma programme, which aims at encouraging the disabled children.

"A child who cannot hear or speak can draw beautifully. We provide scholarships for the student and monetary assistance for the trainer. Of 17 children, one has won a national award for the most creative individual from President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

The in patient centre at the Santosh Hospital in Beshant Nagar is a dream that has come true. "Rehabilitation has to be started at a very early stage. People affected with disability will usually be taken excellent care during acute stages, but are dissociated from health care in the post-acute phase," he says. However, he adds, early intervention can prevent disability.

His recipe for success: If you have the aptitude, develop the interest and have a passion for the profession

Source: Dedicated to serve the disabled
The Hindu Chennai 23 July 2006
Dhiraj Batra

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