Demands of students with disabilities ignored during J.N.U. Students' Union elections

D.N.I.S. News Network – Despite being known internationally for its high academic standards, Jawaharlal Nehru University's student's representatives appear to be untouched by the demands of 60 fellow students with disabilities. This is the message one gets at least from the University's recently concluded Students' Union elections.

The problems of students with disabilities in getting assistance and information during this academic session were highlighted by media ahead of these elections, but these too failed to make demands of disabled students a part of election campaigns by various student outfits.

According to Dean of Students Welfare's Office, there are 60 disabled students enrolled with the University. But all of them are allotted different hostels many of which are not friendly to disabled students both in terms of physical access and facilities available. Only two men's hostels have ramps among a dozen hostels on the residential campus.

Yogesh Churasia, a student with vision impairment, said that the politics on the campus has veered away from idealism and progressivism. It now a victim of vote bank and in this scheme of things none of the student political body takes them seriously.

He also highlighted, in an interview to a Hindi newspaper, the long standing demands of disabled students ranging from a near non-functional computer lab, as most of the computers there do not function. He claimed that in Delhi University there is a disabled computer engineer looking after the University's computer facilities to be able to better understand the needs of disabled students.

Another long standing demand of this section of students has been of a special scholarship, as the present stipend of Rs 250 is ridiculously low.