CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has asked the government to fix the ratio of deputy warden: children with disability, similarly on the lines of the teacher: students ratio in general schools, and allocate sufficient staff to look after the students in special schools for the disabled.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh gave the direction while hearing a petition filed by Gayathri, who works in a special school as deputy warden. She cited in her plea that 48 deaf and 35 visually impaired students are studying in Pudukottai government high school for the deaf.
The teacher, who was taking care of the visually-impaired students was transferred, following which Gayatri, assigned to teach deaf students, was given additional responsibility of blind students as well.
The petitioner’s counsel Kavitha Rameshwar also apprised the court that Gayathri has been working without any leave since 2016. Hearing the petition, the court observed, “Dealing with differently-abled persons comes with its own challenges.
The government must fix the deputy warden: disabled children ratio in the same way it has fixed in the regular schools as teacher: student ratio”. The order further said,
“One deputy warden cannot be made to handle a large group of differently-abled children continuously. If a deputy warden is made to stay with these children for all the 365 days without a break, it has its own consequences on the person,”.
The court said that even the person has a family to take care and the government must show more sensitivity to these issues. In view of the same, the court ordered the government to come up with a policy decision to take up this larger issue and fix the deputy warden-children with disability ratio and allocate sufficient deputy wardens to take care of the children.
The court also ordered the government to allocate leave to the petitioner. Adjourning the hearing of the case to October 24, the judge ordered the government to file a detailed affidavit in this regard.