Members of the Gulbarga District Association of Hearing Impaired staged a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Friday demanding employment opportunities for the hearing impaired in various departments under the Article 371(J) of the Constitution.
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Leading the agitation association president Mallikarjun Surpur said that the people with hearing impairments were neglected in all areas. “We are neither empowered with skills nor given job opportunities in any sector,” he said.
The protesters urged the State government to set up Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA) machines in all district government hospitals across the State to combat fake claims of deafness. BERA is used to screen the nature of deafness in patients with defects in the auditory nerve.
The marriage assistance was not provided to the person with hearing impairment if they married a differently-abled person. The scheme was only meant for those with disability marrying a non-disabled person. The government should provide a marriage assistance of ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh even if both were disabled, they demanded.
Maintenance allowance provided to the person with hearing impairment should also be increased from ₹1,500 to ₹3,000 a month, the protesters demanded.