SUPREME COURT OF INDIA OPENS DOORS FOR MEDICAL STUDENT WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
A recent judgment of the Supreme Court of India appears to have opened new
opportunities for the visually impaired. A young student, Nitin Mantri, had
dreamt of becoming a Doctor from his early years: not an uncommon dream among
the youngsters. What made the dream of Nitin so special was the fact that he
was visually impaired. Due to his visual impairment, there were strong chances
of his denied admission to a Medical College.
The inspiring stories of blind and low vision doctors are not absent from our
memory. One immediately recalls the name of Late Salma Maqbool of Pakistan, who
not only was a successful practicing doctor, but was an important leader in the
blindness field.
Despite knowing that the road may be difficult for him, Nitin persisted with
his dream and tried to seek admission in a medical college. He scored much
higher percentage of marks than the cut off percentage, yet he was denied
admission. He was admitted only after the High Court of Madhya Pradesh
intervened.
Social, administrative, and political prejudices cannot be easily set aside.
His institution as well as the Government of his State appealed in the Supreme
Court of India. After 9 months of toil, Nitin obtained the judgment in his
favour: "There are no rules to bar a visually impaired student from studying
medicine", the Supreme Court ruled.
The ruling is important not just for Nitin Mantrie but for the entire visual
impairment sector. Its significance rests in two respects. Firstly, it has
opened new avenues of study and employment for the visually impaired. The
Supreme Court of India judgment can be cited as an example by individuals and
blindness organizations in other countries to obtain similar facilities in
their respective countries. The UNCRPD already advocates the principle of
"Reasonable Accommodation". This principle can help us in opening up new
opportunities in the areas of education and employment.
Secondly, the case in reference brings an important message to all of us. That
is that given the will and determination, the most difficult doors can also
open. So finally it is clear: the cure to our problems lies only with us.
taken from asian blind union june edition
cheers raghu
Voice your thoughts in the blog to discuss the Rights of persons with
disability bill at:
http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/blog.htm
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
