IITs to treat disabled on par with SCs 17 Aug 2008, 0515 hrs IST, D Suresh Kumar,TNN IITs to treat disabled on par with SCs 17 Aug 2008, 0515 hrs IST, D Suresh Kumar,TNN Print EMail Discuss New Bookmark/Share Save Write to Editor CHENNAI: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) must henceforth treat physically disabled candidates at par with those from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Consequently, physically disabled candidates for whom 3 % of seats have been reserved in the IITs will be entitled for 40% relaxation in marks that is currently extended to SC and ST candidates. This follows an order delivered by the court of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities, New Delhi, on August 8 after parents of two physically challenged candidates hailing from Chennai and Thane, in separate petitions, pointed out that the IITs had treated their children on a par with OBCs, which is in violation of a Supreme Court ruling. The court has said that the IITs must admit physically disabled candidates who have a cut-off score of 104 and above in the current academic session itself. The chief commissioner for persons with disabilities Dr Manoj Kumar, who is a quasi judicial authority, has directed the union ministry of human resources development "to extend relaxation in marks and other concession at par with SC/STs to all persons with disabilities, irrespective of their vertical categories from the current academic session." This year, the IITs had fixed a cut-off of 155 marks in the Joint Entrance Examination for physically disabled candidates, which was similar to that for the OBC applicants. "As a result of this high cut-off only 20 of the 210 seats reserved for the physically challenged were filled up in all the IITs," said Chennai-based M K Maheshwari, father of Rachit Maheshwari, a physically disabled boy. "The remaining seats have fallen vacant and nobody talks about it, while there is such a hue and cry over the non-filling of OBC, SC and ST seats," he lamented. Maheshwari's counsel argued "The common merit list of top 7903 candidates practically does not have any candidate with disability and therefore fixing the aggregate cut off on the basis of the marks scored by the last candidate in the common merit lists amounts to fixing unrealistic targets for the physically disabled." Representatives of the union HRD ministry and the IIT Roorkee contested this. The court pointed out that compared to other marginalised groups, persons with disabilities, especially visually and hearing impaired, are at a disadvantageous position "because the education system in the country leaves a lot of be desired in terms of availability of suitable teaching and learning material, trained teachers, appropriate interfaces for conduction of examination and appropriate evaluation methodology. The situation is all the more difficult in professional and technical course." Referring to the contention of the IITs that physically disabled candidates enjoyed the same reservation as entitled for their community in vertical categories, Manoj Kumar said "while persons with disabilities belong to SC/ST categories get relaxation of 40% marks, the same benefit is not extended to physically disabled candidates belonging to the open and OBC categories. This is discriminatory and denies them equal opportunity to compete on equal footing with the candidates with disabilities belonging to other vertical categories as against the endorsement of the supreme court." Noting that relaxation in marks at par with SC/ST candidates was extended to all persons with disabilities in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination since 2007, the Delhi University and the Jamia Millia University, he said that "it would be desirable that the benefit of preparatory course extended to SC/ST candidates at the IITs is also extended to students with disabilities." The court also directed the IITs "to declare vertical category wise merit list for persons with disabilities i.e. SC-PH, ST-PH, OBC-PH and Gen-PH from the next academic session." The IITs have also been directed to submit an action taken report within 60 days of the receipt of the order. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/IITs_to_treat_disabled_on_par_with_SCs/rssarticleshow/3372269.cms Vikas Kapoor, MSN Id:[EMAIL PROTECTED], Yahoo&Skype Id: dl_vikas, Mobile: (+91) 9891098137. Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration is now open! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
