UPSC denies fair play to visually impaired girl

By Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey

The Times of India News Service

KOLKATA: Kanchan Gaba (22) had never considered her blindness to be a handicap. But the UPSC's Civil Services preliminary examination centre in New Delhi proved an impossible hurdle. Kanchan, who in 1997 won the President's Best Girl Guide award for her prowess especially in mountaineering, had prepared for this year's civil services examination.

The UPSC had not allowed handicapped persons to take the examination until a 1996 Supreme Court ruling lifted this bar. However, the catch is all handicapped candidates have to take both the preliminary and main examinations in New Delhi, unlike their able-bodied counterparts who can opt for centres in their own cities or those closest to home.

"We have to spend for the journey and stay in Delhi for the examinations, while the able-bodied candidates go to Delhi only for the interview, and in the latter case, the UPSC bears the cost," Kanchan says.

When she reached her examination centre, the Government Senior Boys' School at Kidwai Nagar in New Delhi, Kanchan realised that she was due for more trouble.

According to UPSC rules for the blind, Kanchan was given a scribe who would read out the question paper, and write the answers as she dictated.

"I soon discovered that the scribe didn't know how to read English correctly. Instead of reading out the questions, she started spelling out the words and became so nervous that she told me that she was a clerk with the UPSC and did not know English well enough to comprehend the questions. I complained to the invigilator immediately and asked for a change of scribe," Kanchan says. The second scribe was no better and a desperate Kanchan requested the invigilator to come to her rescue. "He realised the problem and changed the scribe yet again. I changed scribes four times during the examination. A lot of time was wasted and I couldn't complete my paper though I was prepared for it," cries Kanchan.

A candidate is expected to answer 150 questions in 120 minutes during the preliminary examination.

Immediately after returning from Delhi, Kanchan wrote protest letters to the chairman and secretary of the UPSC respectively. "I had sent them by registered post on May 25 and I am still awaiting a reply."

Kanchan feels that the UPSC is allowing the handicapped to take the examination "because of the Supreme Court ruling, else it will be deemed contempt of court. But clearly they do not have any intention of giving us a fair chance." Fed up with the nonchalance of the UPSC, Kanchan has now approached the National Association for the Blind to take up the case on her behalf. "We have forwarded the matter to our Mumbai headquarters and we will see that she gets justice," says Tushar Talukdar, former police commissioner, who is president of the Kolkata NAB.

The NAB has also written to the Union ministry of Social Welfare, the Union Public Affairs ministry and the National Commission for the Handicapped. Kanchan also approached the West Bengal Human Rights Commission for advice. "Justice Mukul Gopal Mookerjee, the chairman, has advised me to approach the National Human Rights Commission because UPSC isn't within his purview," she says.

Source: The Times of India
Dated :31st July, 2001