Not Even 1% of Indian Institutes Disabled-Friendly

At a national event organised by National Convention of Youth with Disabilities, the participants said that not even 1% of educational institutes in the country are user-friendly for people with disabilities. According to the official statistics of the University Grants Commission, there are 11,443 stand-alone institutes in India, 37,204 colleges and 789 universities. Even though there are numerous institutes in India, only a few of them are disabled-friendly.

Director of NCPEDP (National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People), Mr. Javed Abidi revealed that 50% of persons with disabilities in the country are under 25 years of age. However, most of the Indian universities are not truly accessible for disabled students.

Adding further, the participants of the event mentioned that disabled people currently occupy less than one percent of seats in higher educational institutes. Even though a limited number of students make it to higher learning institutes, many problems like travelling and accommodation are obstructing these students to pursue education effectively.

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Mr. Javed Abidi explained that Indian educational institutes have a long way to become genuinely accessible and disabled-friendly.

Since 1995, the Government of India has made it compulsory for all the government educational institutes and institutes that receive aid from the government to reserve 3% seats for persons with disability. As per RPWD (Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Act 2016, the reservation for disabled people in educational institutes has been increased to 4 percent.

Even though the government reserved 4% seats for disabled people, many of the educational institutes remain hostile towards students with disabilities.