Despite the government having promised visually challenged graduates employment opportunities through reservation, most blind people haven’t been able to land those jobs, said representatives of the College Students and Graduates Association of the Blind.
“The government has said that 1 per cent of the public sector jobs will be reserved for us, but we haven’t seen it implemented. When they talk about equality, they should also create opportunities,” said Nagarajan, President of the Association.
He pointed out that in 2012, the government provided jobs for 20,000 school teachers, but among them only 20 blind graduates received appointment orders – instead of the ‘reserved’ 200. Nagarajan went on to add that even the 3000 posts that have been allotted for visually-impaired teachers in government-aided colleges have not been filled yet.
The association also pressed some of their long-standing demands such as the decrease of the graduate pass percentage to 40 per cent from 55 , to provide 350 visually impaired graduates an opportunity to teach history and English and to provide them 5 per cent reservation in TET exams. “No one is able to carry forward our demands to the Chief Minister, which is why we are hopeful of meeting her and explaining our problems to her,” he added.