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Friday, 31 May 2013

Don't ignore the disabled, grievances genuine: Supreme Court to Delhi University

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Delhi University (DU) to make certain that its new course structure under the four-year undergraduate programme does not connote a "machinery of failure" for the visually impaired and other disabled students and that the authorities provide all the facilities required. 

Asking the university to ensure that such students do not suffer because of a transition in haste, a bench of Justices B S Chauhan and Dipak Misra said: "Their (students') grievances look to be genuine, and it has to be looked into sympathetically. Sensitivity for such students must grow." 

The bench said DU must make "genuine" efforts to see that disabled students cope with the new curricula even as the court could not dictate how should they teach their students. "These people should not suffer. You cannot give them a new system of education and provide a machinery for failure. There has to be progressive attitude along with empathy," the court said. 

On a petition by NGO Sambhavana, which represented persons with disabilities, the bench had on Monday sought a comprehensive affidavit from the university over the steps taken to redress the grievances of such students in the four-year undergraduate degree courses, slated to be implemented from this year. 

Advocate Pankaj Sinha, who appeared for the NGO, pointed out that DU had hurried into the course without making proper infrastructure arrangements for library and laboratories, accessible reading material and trained teachers. He also complained against compulsory subjects of maths and science for visually impaired students, who are not usually taught these subjects after Class VIII. 

Defending the university, senior advocate Pinky Anand told the bench that DU's empowered committee had gone to great lengths to take care of all needs of such students and prepared its report to with recommendations for inclusive and holistic education. She said the report was placed before the academic council a day ago, and it was adopted. 


Source : The Indian Express , 30th May 2013 

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