THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Meera U Menon, a student doing her Gender Studies Course at the IGNOU regional centre in Kochi and who suffers from a condition called Spina Bifida, prefers the newly constructed building on the campus as her exam centre the next time.
"Since I have a condition that makes it hard for me to walk and limits my control over toilet schedules, it is difficult for me if the toilet is inaccessible. During my research days, it was easy because of a western commode on the second floor of the building. But this time when there was an exam, I was left with no choice," she recollects.
The exam was scheduled at 2 pm in the old building. Meera reached the centre at 1.50pm and noticed that the building only had an Indian commode which was not accessible for disabled people. Since there were no western toilets in the vicinity and her exam was about to begin, Meera was forced to use an Indian toilet and had to sit for a three-hour exam soaked in urine.
Highlighting the nightmare, Meera wrote a letter to Ernakulam Collector S Suhas, Kerala Social Security Mission executive director Mohammad Asheel, Social Justice Department secretary Biju Prabhakar, the state Human Resources Department and J S Dorothy, regional director of Ignou, Kochi.
Most of the officials found time to respond, to Meera’s delight. The authorities at Kerala Social Security Mission and Social Justice Department responded with promises of resolving the issue at the earliest. But the response of Ignou regional centre authorities was nothing less than shocking.
Instead of an apology, Meera received a mail that read “It is informed that the toilet facility for the differently-abled (for learners) is available on the ground floor of the new block. It also shared that the new block is at the floor level and the differently-abled do not have to use the ramp to access the toilet facility.”
Meera was shocked by this response from Dorothy. “Expecting someone with my condition to walk to another block just to use a toilet is not a solution. It is a violation of human rights. The authorities didn’t even make an effort to apologise for the inconvenience that I faced,” she says.
What the law says
Under the Rajive Raturi vs Union of India case, the Supreme Court ruled that accessibility of educational institutions to disabled people must be ensured as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The Accessible India Campaign launched by the union government envisages universal accessibility.
"After Kannur was declared as a disabled-friendly district, steps are being taken to spread this to the rest of the state. In Thiruvananthapuram, almost 51 buildings have been made disabled-friendly," said Mohammad Asheel, executive director, Kerala Social Security Mission.