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'Even after my Ph D, I am looking for a job'

Ramesh Bhan

Dr Sushma Agarwal is a disillusioned scholar today. Her doctorate in mathematics, the first earned by a blind in India, hasn't opened the eyes of an insensitive society.

''No one is willing to give us a chance. The society, even our parents, considers us a disgrace and treats us with little sympathy," the 38-year-old says bitterly, "Even after my Ph D I am looking for a job.''

Agarwal got her doctorate in 1996 after many hardships. She remembers being overcome with joy then. But her enthusiasm soon evaporated when job opportunities slipped past. Now a research associate with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, on a stipend, she will have to start looking for a living again in three to five years when her assignment expires.

Dr Agarwal's story is comparable to that of 21-year-old Sudha Patel, the first blind woman to have be elected the sarpanch (head) of a village. Sudha, who holds a law degree and is now pursuing her doctorate, took her handicap by the horns. She says a blind person must get proper education and see that she is independent in her mobility.

''I learnt very early in life that nobody took me at face value. I had to prove every statement that I made and realise every dream that I dreamt before people believed me. The essence of the thing was that a person who was depressed and non-functional is now independent,'' she claimed proudly.

Sudha, who heads the Changa village in Gujarat, wants to do something constructive for the blind of her district -- Kheda -- in general and her taluka in particular. Her emphasis is on protecting the rights of blind girl children.

Sudha now works in 85 villages of the Petlad taluka and has registered 123 blind (including 65 women), 800 disabled, 78 deaf and dumb, 58 mentally retarded and 464 widows. So far, she has admitted 81 blind children to schools.

All India Confederation of the Blind J L Kaul said no special effort had been made by the government during the past 50 years to improve the lot of the visually handicapped women. ''There are very few schools and opportunities for vocational training for blind women as compared to even blind men,'' he said.

Shubhangi S Mishrikotkar, general secretary of the AICB National Forum of Blind Women, said only about one per cent of the visually impaired women currently benefit from services offered by the government and NGOs. There was an urgent need to support such women, he said, of whom about 70 per cent live in rural areas.

Mishrikotkar said the programmes initiated by the authorities so far covered both visually impaired men and women in most cases. Under the present circumstances, the women had to face two challenges: of taking maximum advantage of the existing initiatives, and claiming the additionally needed gender specific services.

According to D K Manavalan, secretary in the ministry of social justice and empowerment, the government was implementing some major schemes for the disabled. The existing disability division in the ministry may shortly be converted into a full-fledged department of disability rehabilitation, he added.

Ministry officials said the Centre assisted the states in education, mainly to enable disabled students to purchase basic aids and appliances -- but they admitted that no help was available exclusively for educating visually impaired girls. The scheme of scholarships to the disabled/visually impaired also did not have any separate provision for women, Mishrikotkar added.

Research establishes that blind women in rural areas have been left out of various welfare programmes. Their plight, naturally, is worse than that of their urban counterparts.

Only about five to seven per cent of blind persons currently benefit from government programmes. Blind men account for about 75 per cent. The remaining 25 per cent is made up of blind women, most of whom are from urban areas.

This, when 70 per cent of blind women live in the rural areas of the country.

The researchers identify several reasons for this state of affairs. These include government apathy or ignorance about the magnitude of the problem, resource constraints, lack of awareness among rural blind women resulting from illiteracy, and lack of organisational support.

M C Bhandare, former MP and managing trustee of the Justice Sunanda Bhandare Foundation, an organisation which spreads legal awareness among the visually impaired, said the blind women would get their due only when the entire society becomes sensitive to them.

"The very fact that one had to wait nearly 50 years after Independence to get the Disabilities, Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation Act, 1995 passed clearly indicates the lack of concern the society has," he said.

UNI

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