UGC deaf to the pleas of person with multiple disabilities for Braille question paper

Chennai:

The University Grants Commission is deaf to the pleas of a person with multiple disabilities seeking Braille question paper to write UGC National Educational Testing (NET) exams for the last two years.

Despite a revised guideline under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Department of Disability Affairs, which states that persons with disabilities should choose their own mode to write exams, UGC has denied the candidate Miranda Tomkinson a Braille question paper which he has demanded twice for writing the exams.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Miranda along with Disability Legislation Unit, South, Vidya Sagar office-bearers S S Smitha and Rajiv Ranjan said that he feels helpless as his qualification of Masters in Sociology could not earn him a job and he has to still depend on his close relatives for financial aid.

Smitha said that Miranda had now applied for the exams third time and has approached us for help. “We wrote to UGC chairman on October 9, 2013 requesting administration of Braille question paper along with the revised guideline of Ministry of Social Justice for conducting written exams with persons with disabilities issued on February 26, 2013.

“As the Disability Legislation Unit (DLU) did not get a reply from UGC, we approached the state commissioner for persons with disabilities and Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Government of India,” Smitha said.

Following this the office of state commissioner for person with disabilities, Tamil Nadu issued a notification on October 25 directing UGC to provide for Braille question paper to Tomkinson. Similarly the office of the Chief Commissioner of Disabilities, Government of India, too issued a similar direction.

But UGC never responded and then DLU met the registrar of Madras University to intervene in the matter. The registrar promised to take up the issue with higher authorities at UGC. “The Madras University refused to share the correspondence with UGC and later informed us orally that UGC could not provide Braille question paper in NET 2013 exam as it is a policy decision and could be considered for the next examination.

Interestingly, these had been the similar explanations given by UGC in the previous two occasions through RTI to Tomkinson, says Smitha who is planning to move the court over this issue.

“Now it is the question of denying a disabled person his livelihood and life of dignity,” Rajeev said