CHENNAI: The enrollment of disabled persons in the higher education institutions in the state has dropped by over 50% in the year 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20, revealing the recently released All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2020-21 report.
According to the report, in the year 2020-21, only 4,869 persons with disabilities (PwD) were enrolled in higher education institutions in the state, which includes 2,831 males and 2,038 females. While in 2019-2020, the figure was 10,901 and 10,199 in 2018-19. In 2019-2020, of the 10901 enrolled students, 7,437 were girls and 3,464 were boys.
Though there is a decline in the number enrollment of disabled students all over the country, neighbouring states like Kerala, and Telangana have performed better in this area. In Telangana, the enrollment of PwD increased from 2,940 in 2019-2020 to 3,104 in 2020-21. Similarly, in Kerala, the figure has increased from 3,710 to 3,991.
Disabled rights activists have attributed the decline in enrollment to multiple reasons. While the Covid-19 pandemic is the first culprit, they have also blamed the lackadaisical approach of the government towards ensuring higher education to disabled students and the lack of inclusive education policy for PwDs for the scenario.
“A disabled child is always neglected in the family and when they were affected financially due to Covid-19, ensuring higher education for their disabled child was the last thing they thought about. The disability welfare department should have taken more proactive steps to deal with the learning loss of the PwDs and ensure higher education for the PwDs,” said TMN Deepak, a disability rights activist.
Some activists said that it’s high time the state government chalks out strategies beyond reservation to ensure higher education for disabled students. Geetanjali Srinivasan, a disabled teacher said, “By ensuring higher education to the PwDs, we will help them to lead a financially independent life, which is very important. Recently the state government introduced a Rs 1000 scheme for girls to encourage them to pursue higher education. Similar initiatives are required for disabled students too.”