Despite well-meaning legislation, the enrollment of differently-abled girls in colleges in Odisha
remains woefully low. Diana Sahu digs through numbers to get just how dire the problem is
Sushree Sarangi (26) is the first doctor in Odisha in a wheelchair. She was in her second-year of medical studies at the Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital in Bhubaneswar when she met with an accident that left her quadriplegic. She, however, did not give up her MBBS education and received the degree this year. The journey to get that degree, though, was tough as she had to face the problem of accessibility.
“It was the biggest hurdle in fact. Being wheelchair-bound made many things inaccessible for me. My college was inaccessible but soon slopes were made throughout entrances and working lifts which made it easy on my part to pursue the course. But when it came to field visits, I had to depend on reports brought by my classmates for analysis,” she says.
Sushree is among the few lucky handicapped girls in Odisha, who enter the domain of higher education and manage to complete their courses to become independent. Even as the People with Disabilities (PWD) Act, 1995 mandates three per cent quota for the physically challenged students in higher education institutions of the country, Odisha paints a sorry picture as far as enrollment of handicapped girls is concerned.
After two decades of implementation of the PWD Act, only about two per cent of seats in general and stand-alone institutions go to handicapped girls in the State. Worse, many among the girls who enrol for higher studies drop out due to lack of facilities and the absence of a congenial learning environment. Their representation in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Management) subjects is also negligible.
Capped Admission Numbers
According to the last All India Survey of Higher Education Institutions in 2014-15, the enrollment of physically-handicapped girls in Odisha is just 389 of the total 29,541 (across the country) in this category. A majority of them belong to the Arts stream. At least 1050 physically-handicapped students are enrolled in higher education institutions in the State of which, 661 were boys and the rest 389 (2.6 per cent) girls. Whereas, 1,92,773 general girls took admission in Junior (Plus Two) colleges and 99,417 in degree (Plus Three) colleges in the same academic year.
The several elite Central Government-run institutions in Odisha like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), National Institute of Technology (NIT), Central University of Odisha, National Institute of Science Education and Research have less than one per cent enrollment of physically-handicapped girls, according to sources in the Higher Education Department, Government of Odisha. Besides, there are just 29 physically-handicapped women faculty members in the State as against the total 141 in general colleges. The Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in Odisha give admission to only girls with physical disabilities as a result of which, a majority of girl students with other disabilities are left out.
Academicians say awareness among people on the importance of higher education for physically-challenged girls is extremely low. Ironically, although the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) has dedicated initiatives to enrol more girls including those differently-abled in the school education system, that is not the case with higher education except for the provision of scholarships. According to a study conducted by Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Center(SMRC) — a leading voluntary organisation working in the field of disability in Odisha — at one of the largest universities of the State in 2014, of the 2201 students admitted to engineering courses, 17 were men with disability and there were only two women with disability.
In another study on employment and women with disabilities, of 500 women who were interviewed, only seven were educated in Science subjects. Director of Indian Institute of Technology-Bhubaneswar, Prof RV Raja Kumar says the number of girls enrolling in IITs across the country is less and the number of physically-handicapped girls is lesser. The ratio of girls and boys in IIT-Bhubaneswar is 1:8 approximately and the number comes down further when you take physically-challenged girls into consideration, he informs. “This is more or less a societal issue.
Coaching for IITs is expensive and not many parents here would be willing to bear the expenditure of educating their handicapped girls beyond graduation. However, the situation would be different if it was a boy,” he says, adding that IIT-Bhubaneswar is working towards coming up with measures to bring in more handicapped girls (Science graduates) into the fold.
Niraja Laxmi Mohapatra, secretary of Satyabhama Devi College for Hearing Impaired in Bhubaneswar — the only such college in the State — seconds Prof Kumar. She says awareness among parents about the need for higher education in life of differently-abled girls is less, particularly in rural areas. This despite the fact that women with disabilities fare well in an educational scenario as compared to their general counterparts.
Currently, the college has 42 deaf and dumb students out of which, only eight are girls. “There are around eight special high schools in the State catering to students with speech and hearing disabilities. Howe ver, the number of girls seeking admission to our college is far less than the number of such girls passing out from such schools,” she says, adding that parents in villages are not willing to send their girls to far off places like Bhubaneswar to study.
Growing Concern
The situation outside Odisha is no different. As per the AISHE report, there are 64,298 physically handicapped students enrolled in higher education institutions, out of which 34,757 are male and 29,541 are female students. Tamil Nadu and Maharastra, which have the highest number of handicapped women in the age group of 18 to 25, have an enrollment of 2001 and 2193 respectively. However, a majority of girls getting admission are physically-disabled while those with multiple or intellectual disabilities are left out. Nation-wide, female representation in teachers belonging to Persons with Disabilities (PWD) category is low, at 49 females per 100 male teachers.
Deepa Sonpal, an international Disability and Women’s Rights Activist, says for a woman with disability, life is a double-edged sword. “The Census in 2011, like the previous one conducted in 2001, claim that only two per cent of the population is handicapped. Out of the total disabled population, 45.5 per cent cannot read and write and among women, this figure is even higher.
The figures for higher education are very low with only about nine percent men and seven percent women managing to complete their graduation. In a competitive world, only the meritorious will get the opportunity to be gainfully employed. It is high time the government realises that educational needs of women with disabilities are addressed so that they are in a position to collectively take action for themselves,” she says. Member of SMRC, Asha Hans suggested that the MHRD should formulate special schemes to include more handicapped women under the STEM fold as Science, Technology, Engineering and Management are the only subjects that are directly related to skill development and employment.