CURRENT ISSUE JUNE 26, 2006

AT THE FRONTIERS

1 "Many candidates with severe visual impairment appear for civil service exams. One day they'll succeed." RAVI ARORA, 33, JHARKHAND: A product of rural education, cleared CSE-2001 and discovered his ailment during the medical check. RANK: 408, Visually impaired 2 "I am successful now, but I remember some multinationals had turned me down due to my disability." DINESH KUMAR,24, BIHAR: Wears glasses with minus-17 power in one eye. Passed the civil service exams on his first attempt. RANK: 423, Visually impaired 3 "After seeing me, when people try to assess my percentage of disability, it makes me laugh." SHREEDHAR, 30, TAMIL NADU: Afflicted by polio in both legs as a child, today he walks without help. Cleared the CSE on third attempt. RANK: 394, Orthopaedically challenged 4 "I do not feel disabled at any level. I work as an assistant pf commissioner and fulfil all my duties." PSHERING ONGDA, 26, SIKKIM: His right hand is missing, not his determination to live life to the hilt. Got through in his third attempt. RANK: 385, Orthopaedically challenged 5 "I have never thought of my disability as something very unfortunate. Reservation benefitted me." K. PADMAWATHY, 27, TAMIL NADU: Coming from a modest home, she quit PhD studies in IIT-Chennai to become a civil servant. RANK: 392, Orthopaedically challenged

Cutting through the list of lakhs of aspirants, the civil services selection process this year led to the induction of 425 freshers into its ranks. Among these were a daring dozen, for whom this success was a triumph not just of the mind but also of the body.

Like Dinesh Kumar of Chhapra, Bihar, was turned down by multinationals because of myopia in one eye. Abhijit Chakravorthy was once denied the opportunity to enlist in an English honours course because he is hearing-impaired. Or, Pshering Ongda, whose love for football often makes him forget that he should be careful with his artificial hand. What singles them-and a handful like them-out as extraordinary is their success at the Civil Service Exams (CSE), rather than their physical impairment, which the world always chose to define them with.

As many as 12 physically challenged candidates (a record for their category) have come through the rigours of CSE-2005. They include those who have lost use of their limbs due to polio, or are without a hand, and the visual, hearing and speech impaired. Today, they are qualified and entitled to occupy responsible positions in the Government. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) member Bhure Lal says, "They will now feel a constructive part of society, able to serve people just like other candidates."

According to the 2001 census, the physically challenged account for around 2.19 per cent of the country's population. Every year, approximately 6,000 such candidates appear for the CSE. Since 2005, 3 per cent seats in this stream have been reserved for them. It took a slew of court cases against injustice meted out towards the physically challenged and intervention from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get this far. Even then, Sunita Dogra, a young teacher from Chandigarh, had to approach the court to fight for the right to be given a writer at CSE-2006. Dogra cannot use either of her hands and had appeared for her MA and BEd exams with the help of a writer. When she applied to the UPSC, requesting the same facility, she was told that writers were provided only to visually challenged candidates. Dogra recalls, "It was impossible for me to answer the questions without a scribe as I cannot write with either of my hands," she says. Dogra took up her case with the UPSC and the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), as well as the Prime Minister's Office, before she was allowed a writer in the preliminary round of CSE-2006.

A writ is now pending in the Delhi High Court, to be taken up in September, that will allow physically challenged candidates 10 attempts to clear the CSE. At the moment, candidates can take as many shots at the exam as are allowed on caste categorisation alone. But the trials of those who succeed don't end with their selection. In the past, physically challenged candidates have been denied proper posts. It is only now that they have become more forceful. Rigzin Samphel, 2003 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, secured the chair he was entitled to after a long legal wrangle which went all the way to the Supreme Court. "In keeping with my 120th rank in CSE-2003, I was eligible for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). But I was given the Indian Information Service," he says.

"I do not like the word 'disabled'. I can do all my work like any other ordinary person." ABHIJIT CHAKRAVORTHY, 27, KOLKATA Selected on his second attempt in the CSE. Denied admission to the English honours course in college, he fought and won. RANK: 408, Hearing impaired "If there was no reservation, I would not have sat for the exams again. Injustice was done to us in 2002." P. ULAGNATHAN, 29, PONDICHERRY Son of unlettered parents, he was afflicted with polio when young. He topped among 12 successful candidates in this category in the CSE. RANK: 59, Orthopaedically challenged "I feel disturbed only when I am denied work. How can others decide what I can or can't do?" B.K. VISHNUPRIYA, 27, HYDERABAD Daughter of a clerk, she is one of the only two successful women candidates from her state. This was her fourth attempt at the CSE. RANK: 416, Orthopaedically challenged

M. Satish, who passed CSE-2001 with the 249th rank was not allotted a post, cadre or service after waiting for months. It took an order from the Prime Minister's Office for the DOPT to make him an IRS cadre. Perumal Ulagnathan, ranked highest among the physically challenged in CSE-2005, says, "If there was no reservation, I would not have applied in 2005. Because I understand that even after securing good ranks, we could only land unimportant posts."

Ironically, the law does have provisions for the physically challenged. The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act was passed in Parliament in 1995. It directs government departments and public sector undertakings to identify 3 per cent of the posts at every level for reservation for the physically challenged. In several cases, the departments took action only after the courts pulled them up.

As recently as in October 2004, the Delhi High Court reprimanded the Government for denying the physically challenged their rights, observing that the majority of the 27 services for which the CSE is held every year had closed themselves to aspirants from the category. The struggle that candidates like Satish and Samphel went through has now compelled the Government not only to enforce 3 per cent reservation, but also to open up 17 services to the physically challenged. Now, all services, barring the Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Forest Service and technical services, are open to such candidates. In CSE-2006, 11 posts have been reserved for them in the non-IAS services: nine of them for the orthopaedically challenged and two for the hearing impaired.

Victims of prejudice themselves, very few physically challenged IAS officers holding posts actively advocate the cause of those suffering a similar fate. But prominent among those who have come out in support are Aviation Secretary Ajai Prasad, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary R. Ramani and a 1980 batch officer of the Kerala cadre, Dharamveer.

As the ground reality suggests, clearing the CSE is the least of the problems for the physically challenged. Even today, not many would have Dogra's tenacity to struggle, fight and conquer the archaic laws and regulations of the DOPT or the exclusionist mindset of the UPSC. Bringing about a change in callous attitudes may take some time, but till then reservation empowers the physically challenged not just in their profession but also in their lives. What it establishes is a precedent and more than one role model.

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