CHENNAI: Awards are a source of recognition for some, but for M Sagadevan, general secretary of the National Federation for the Blind, it is a form of validation for his fight for the rights that society has denied to blind people, including himself.
Sagadevan was recently awarded the national award for empowerment of people with disabilities by the Department of Social Welfare, Government of India, for his remarkable achievements in caring for others. A professor in the department of English, Presidency College, he teaches not only English to his students, but also shows more than 65 students with disabilities, that integrated education is better than exclusive schools.
His work as a member of the National Federation for the Blind is too numerous to be catalogued in a few small paragraphs and even Prof Sagadevan is not interested in doing so, for he wants the media to focus on the need of the hour, which would help uplift the lives of people living with disabilities.
His lingering regret is in seeing society and the government not accepting visually challenged people enough to integrate them in to part of everyday life — why else would access still be denied to them in almost all public buildings and spaces. “By access, I mean that almost all buildings, subways and traffic signals do not have facilities for people with disabilities to move around without help. Is it feasible to have with a person come along to carry you over several steps, as seen in several government buildings?,” he questions.
“We are happy that Presidency College is friendly to people with disabilities.
People are always willing to help us climb the stairs, though it is a huge dent to our self-confidence, having to seek assistance to move from classroom to classroom, “ he explains. But the University of Madras has a closed minded about people with disabilities working in the University, he alleges, and adds that access, as an issue, cannot even be raised there.
He explained that in the coming year ‘Access to people with disabilities’ would be taken up jointly by all organisations working in this sector. Prof Sagadevan believes the National Federation for Blind’s move to take up one percent reservation of jobs in the public sector would eventually stop people with disabilities ending up begging on the streets.
For Prof Sagadevan, who was born in a poor family in Narasingamangalam village in Cuddalore district, the battles won with people fighting ignorance and the dangers of using herbal remedies remain very close to his heart. He lost his eyesight when he was eight years old, after village elders used a herbal medicine in his eyes after a grasshopper sat on it.