Members of the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled & Caregivers (TARATDAC) staged protests at 32 railway stations across the State on Tuesday, with a number of demands.
General secretary of TARATDAC, S. Nambu Rajan, said over 1,000 persons with disabilities took part in the struggle. Among their demands is for the Railways to provide concessions to all persons with benchmarks disabilities as defined under the law. “At present, the Railways insists that concessions can be given to only those with 100% disability,” he said. They also demanded the sensitisation of railway staff to the needs of persons with disabilities and for the coaches for the disabled to not be occupied by other persons. “Stations also continue to be disabled unfriendly. It is not enough to merely provide a ramp — the ramp has to be up to standards,” he said.
Unique ID
Another issue is the acceptance of unique disability ID cards. In October last year, the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled wrote to the Minister of Railways asking for these cards to be used for identity purposes instead of having persons with disabilities procure another card specifically for the Railway concession. A protest on this issue and the other demands has been planned in Delhi for March 6, a press note said.
The unique disability ID card has been brought in to ensure that persons with disabilities do not need separate ID cards for various government departments, schemes and concessions and is meant to work across India. In Tamil Nadu, Mr. Nambu Rajan said, though some people have applied and got the universal disability ID card, it has still not been implemented and so cannot be used yet.
In another incident, the police detained a group of persons with disabilities, who attempted to approach Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to submit a petition. “They wanted the government to employ them first and then give them time to appear for the Teachers Eligibility Test. Alternatively, they wanted the government to employ them in other departments,” said an officer.
The group tried to meet the Chief Minister on Monday night, but the police did not allow them. On Tuesday morning, when they reached his residence again, the police helped them meet senior officials. “But they wanted to meet the Chief Minister. We detained them at a hall on C.P. Ramaswamy Road. They were let off later,” said a police officer.
