NEW DELHI: Despite efforts to fill seats reserved for students with disabilities, the number of such candidates who took admissions for undergraduate courses in 2017-18 stood no more than 2 per cent of the 56,000 seats in the offing. Of the total 56,000 seats in DU’s 60-odd constituted colleges, 5 per cent (2,800 seats) is reserved for PwD students. According to DU’s Equal Opportunity Cell, about 600-700 PwD category students had enrolled for undergraduate courses last year.
Seats at undergraduate level are reserved college-wise. Though there's immense rush in some colleges, many seats go vacant because there are no takers in other colleges. Also, reservation is course-wise in a college and there's visually no demand among PwD students for a number of courses. DU was among the first few universities in the country which implemented the Rights of Person with Disability Act, 2016, raising the quota from 3 per cent to 5 per cent. But, the percentage of PwD admissions (564) in 2016, when the quota was limited to 3 per cent, was nearly the same.
“To ensure equity, the reservation for PwD category students is maintained course-wise. The low percentage is due to less demand for certain courses among the aspirants belonging to the category. That is why a shortfall is observed in total,” says Anil K Aneja, OSD of Delhi University’s Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC).
Fortunately, the admission scenario is not the same at the postgraduate level where there are about 9,000 seats in the offing, he added. Of the 5 per cent reserved seats (450) for the PwD category, about 255 aspirants took admission last year and 196 in 2016, according to records with the EOC.