Reaching exam centres proves tougher than exams

The Hindu, COIMBATORE, August 3, 2012

NILEENA M.S.

S. Vijayalakshmi, a person with severe orthopaedic difficulties from Ooty, could not take the test for the railway special recruitment drive for differently abled persons held last month because it was difficult for her to travel to the exam centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

Members of associations for differently abled persons complained that lack of accessibility to test centres for Government jobs like railways, banks and Public Service Commission (PSC) exams made it difficult for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to attend the examinations which deprived them of opportunities to land good jobs.

O. Ramesh, a person with locomotor disability from Annur, said “I had applied for the railway recruitment test, but I was allotted the centre at Madurai. The five-hour journey by bus to Madurai and finding a suitable accommodation were difficult as I had travelled alone.”

“Lot of people who had applied for the recruitment test could not attend the test because differently abled persons did not have access to test centres. While candidates from Coimbatore were allotted centres in Madurai, Chennai and Palakkad, people from Wayanad, Kerala, came all the way to Madurai to take up the test,” said Surya Nagappan, president, Caliber Trust, who had appeared for the test held at Madurai on June 24.

The members complained that details of their type and level of disabilities and medical certificates were produced while applying for the recruitment test, but this was not taken into consideration while allotting examination centres. “Though fee concessions are provided for writing the examination, we have to spend more on transport and accommodation, said Mr. Nagappan.

According to M. Kamaraj, coordinator, Thiramai Differently abled Communication Centre, he was allotted the exam hall at the second floor of a building for a PSC test. He said that many times examination halls were allotted without consideration, while people with hearing impairments were allotted halls on the ground floor those worth orthopaedic disabilities were made to climb up to second and third floor, Mr. Kamaraj said.

Mohan Kumar, a person with orthopaedic disabilities from Thudiyalur said that he reached the exam centre late because he had to travel to a remote place in Palakkad. “ There were very few buses to the college which was my exam centre and we could not afford the autorickshaw charges.”

According to T. Sakthivel, for his Master of Business Administration exam at a Government University here he was allotted the exam centre at a distant place while the university had exam centres at colleges near by.

M.N.G. Mani, Secretary General, International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) and Managing Trustee of You and Disable Forum, said: “Despite various Government policies and schemes, lack of sensitivity and awareness about the problems faced by differently abled person gave rise to such difficulties.”

He said that finding right persons to be scribes to write examination was another problem faced by persons with visual impairments. People with speech and hearing impairments faced communication problems. All these should be considered when conducting examinations for differently abled persons, he said.

“Not just proximity, connectivity to the examination centre should also be taken into consideration while allotting exam centres for differently abled persons, “ he added.

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