There is no centralised data base on the socio-economic condition of differently-abled students; even their exact numbers is unknown.
A ;protest by differently-abled students in Tamil Nadu. (Supplied)
Despite protestations to the contrary, the Tamil Nadu government does not seem at all serious about providing differently-abled students of the state access to quality education. This is the only conclusion that can be drawn from a damning recent report released by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) which has left experts and other stakeholders appalled.
In its “compliance audit” report for the year to March 2022, the CAG has stated that the inadequate number of special schools in several districts has impacted access to education for differently-abled children in Tamil Nadu.
The report also pointed out that, worryingly, there was no centralised data with the government on the number of disabled children residing in the state.
As per Section 31 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act of 2016, every child with a benchmark disability in the age group of six to 18 years shall have the right to free education in the neighbourhood school or special schools of their choice — and the government should ensure every child has such access.
The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities, 2006, also mandates regular collection, compilation, and analysis of data relating to the socio-economic conditions of persons with disabilities, and maintenance of a centralised database of beneficiaries.
Also, the RPWD Act envisages a survey of school-going children to be conducted and updated every two years to identify children with disabilities.
However, no survey was conducted in the state, the report said.
In Tamil Nadu, 22 government special schools and 50 government-aided special schools were functioning for four categories of disability, viz, visually impaired, hearing impaired, intellectually disabled, and locomotor disabled.
However, special schools were not available for visually impaired children in 20 districts, hearing impaired children in 10 districts and locomotor disabled children in 26 districts.
The report recommended that the Tamil Nadu government increase access to education for differently-abled children by increasing the number of special schools, streamlining the system for staff recruitment for these institutions, and speedily filling vacant posts.
As per the audit report, the government stated that it was only due to the reluctance of parents to admit their children to special schools that they were admitted to regular schools up to Class 8.
The audit, however, observed that the government did not create an enabling environment to facilitate schooling for differently-abled children, and, therefore, it was incorrect to blame it on parents’ reluctance.
During 2019-22, the Tamil Nadu government spent ₹347.73 crore on special schools, homes, and early-intervention centres in the state.
The manpower statements of the special schools show that, as of March 2022, 38 percent of the sanctioned posts of graduate and post-graduate teachers were vacant.
In the government higher secondary schools for the visually impaired in Tiruchy, 23 of 31 sanctioned posts of teachers/instructors were vacant. A similar school in Madurai has no teachers except the headmaster.
The vacancies in the Government Rehabilitation Leprosy Homes in the state ranged from 25 to 100 percent.
In the three sampled government rehabilitation homes, several posts, including those of the administrative officer, nursing assistant, wardens, cooks, cook matty, and sweepers/scavengers, were not filled up for periods ranging from 2007 to 2022.
In the absence of cooks, the inmates were asked to cook food themselves and clean the vessels.
The state government, in January 2023, during the audit, claimed that the commissioner of the Differently Abled Welfare Department was taking action in coordination with the Teachers Recruitment Board and the Employment Exchange to fill up the vacancies by recruiting contract teachers as a temporary arrangement.
The Differently Abled Welfare Department is also issuing ‘National Disability Identity Certificate’ cards (NDIC, since 1989) after assessment of the extent of disability by specified doctors. Till March 2022, 14,34,837 NDIC cards were issued in a decentralised manner by the district offices.
However, these details have not been consolidated into a centralised database. The audit report stated that records were maintained in manual registers in the sampled districts.
Scrutiny of records also revealed that the manual data held in the district offices has not been consolidated, and the department needs to make efforts to maintain a centralised database of persons with disabilities for effective targeting and delivery of scheme benefits.
Lack of state policy, non-conduct of regular State Advisory Board (SAB) meetings and non-aggregation of manual data did not help in effective planning and resulted in deficiencies in implementing welfare schemes.
CAG’s audit report on ‘Post Matric Scholarship to Students Belonging to Scheduled Castes for Studies in India’, presented in Parliament in 2018, brought out the issue of implementing the scholarship scheme in various states of the country, including Tamil Nadu.
The report included a comment on the non-implementation of the component of the scheme towards payment of additional allowance to differently-abled students in Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu government replied that this component of the scholarship scheme was not implemented as a separate scheme by the Differently Abled Welfare Department was in operation.
Its status was examined as a follow-up to the all-India audit of the Post Matric Scholarship scheme. The audit found that neither the component of the centrally-sponsored scheme was implemented, nor was the state scheme for scholarship and readers’ allowance implemented effectively.
During 2019-22, the government incurred an expense of ₹22.29 crore on scholarships and readers’ allowances. Deficiencies were noticed in the distribution of scholarships and readers’ allowance.
For 2021-22, in addition to the normal allocation, the Directorate of Differently Abled Welfare Offices (DDAWO) of 20 districts requested funds of ₹1.12 crore towards scholarships. However, due to paucity, the funds were released and paid to the students to date (as of September 2022).
The audit observed that though additional funds were required by districts for the year 2019-20, no proposal was sent by the commissioner to the government. “No attempt was made even at the Final Modified Appropriation stage to transfer funds from Heads with savings as the savings were not assessed on time,” the audit report stated.
“The surplus funds available during the year 2020-21 could have been utilised to clear the pending scholarships for the year 2019-20. However, no proposal for such an adjustment was forwarded by the Department,” it said.
Lack of proper assessment and requirement of funds had resulted in non-disbursement of scholarships to eligible students.
The audit observed that the government, in January 2023, endorsed the reply of the commissioner that in 2019-20, additional fund requisition was not made to the government as the requests by the DDAWOs were received only at the end of the financial year.
The government accepted the inadequacies in the centralised database and stated that action was being taken through the Tamil Nadu eGovernance agency to address the issue.
Though the State Advisory Board, or SAB, was constituted in 2017, only three meetings were held till March 2022. Even six years after the enactment of the RPWD Act, 2016, the Tamil Nadu government had not framed the state policy to address the issues of the differently abled.
However, the state government, during the audit, had reportedly stated that though it had a policy from December 1994, a revised policy was to be framed based on the RPWD Act, 2016, and it was only in August 2022 that efforts were made to call for public opinion for policy-framing.
“The Act, which has its genesis in the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disability, has a right-based approach in the welfare measures for differently abled persons, which needs to be reflected in the policies. The lack of an updated policy was one of the reasons for the deficient implementation of schemes,” the audit observed.
Andavar P Jayadev, founder of Sparks Vidyalaya Special School in Madurai, said that whatever the CAG report has detailed is unfortunately true.
“Usually, the CAG takes a sample of the subjects to audit and would arrive at a conclusion of the discrepancies. Think, if the CAG takes the whole department and its schemes to audit, the quantum of disparities would be even more,” he told South First.
Jaydev said “There is a tendency amoung the political parties… they think that the differently abled do not contribute to the growth of the country. Serving the disabled will help them to garner votes among the other sections of people. The government and political parties use them as a sympathy factor.”
He also said that every district has at least a minimum of 2-4 percent of differently-abled people, and those with less than 30 percent disability continue their higher studies and that too if they are economically strong.
“Do special children have voting rights? Can a person with more than 50 percent disability reach the poll booth and vote? Even if they protested for their rights, they would be crushed mercilessly by the government machinery. Except few activists and journalists, does society bother with the misappropriation of funds/schemes allotted for them? This gives courage for the governments and its officials to be least bothered about them,” he said.
D Swapna, a Chennai-based special teacher working in a school for the visually impaired, told South First that where the differently abled are concerned, the government is not even ready to put 10 percent of the effort that it puts into the common curriculum of regular students.
“It has been years since I registered myself in the employment exchange as a special educator. Though there are vacancies, for reasons known to the government, they have not been filled,” she said.
She continued, “The process of getting the disabled scholarship is very tedious. Just think, even a normal man who wants to avail a government scheme has to walk multiple times to the concerned government office and bribe them to avail the benefits.
“The fact also is that the government doesn’t have data on the disabled with them. They are still stuck with the last taken census.”
“The officers at the top reach their position by clearing the civil service exams. If you had asked them, while they were preparing for exams, why they wanted to become an IAS or join other services, they would say that they wanted to serve society.
“Society is inclusive of all people, including the disabled. Why don’t they understand it after becoming civil servants,” Swapna wondered.
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