Despite her 100 per cent blindness, she successfully completed her MA in Sociology, BEd, MEd, MPhil and even cracked the National Eligibility Test (NET) for lectureship. http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/states-first-blind-woman-who-cracked-oes-gets-job.html She even secured 47th rank in the OPSC-conducted Odisha Education Service (OES) in unreserved category. But, unfortunately her appointment had been withheld by Government officials for two months.
However, due to the persistent efforts and fight of disability rights activist and Institute of Social Work and Research (ISWAR) general secretary Sanyas Kumar Behera, Bijayalaxmi Pal finally got the appointment letter from the School and Mass Education Department and was posted as Pipili-based Elementary Teachers’ Training Institute’s Principal on Friday. “She is the first blind OES in the State. It will inspire other persons with disabilities not to think negative; rather it’ll focus on their inherent talent,” said Behera, who is also a blind person. Behera alleged that initially the State Government put a question mark on Bijayalaxmi’s appointment and withheld her appointment order on the ground of her blindness on August 2 while all other OES selected candidates were given appointment order by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik himself in a grand function at Jayadev Bhawan Bhubaneswar. “On that same day, Bijayalaxmi returned empty- handed with teary eyes considering her blindness as her misfortune. Of course, Bijayalaxmi lost her salary and seniority for two months but it is a success for the whole disability fraternity in the State,” said Behera. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
