HimVani
Shimla: Exposing the inhuman conditions in which visually challenged, vocally and audibly challenged students of the special school in Dhalli, near Shimla are living, the Himachal chapter of Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies (SDRS) has threatened to seek justice from court.
The Society has also asked Governor VS Kokje to step in to the situation and call explanation from the government that why the disabled students have been exposed to unhygienic conditions in the residential schools. Chairman of the Society, Ajai Srivastava said, “If the Governor cannot ensure the welfare of the disabled kids then he should step down from his post on the moral grounds. By virtue of his post Governor is the president of Child Welfare Council, which governs the special school at Dhalli.
While talking to the media perons in Shimla Ajai Srivastava, who is also the member of Planning Commission’s Working Group on Empowering the Disabled, exposed, “Of the total 138 students at Dhalli school about 128 are living in the hostel and are suffering from various skin diseases, because their beds are unhygienic and infected.” Srivastava said that provisions of the Persons With Disability Act (PWD Act) 1995 are being openly flouted in the school. According to the Act, the disabled students should be given ‘appropriate educational environment’, but this act is totally being violated in the school.”
“Toilets of this residential school remain choked non-functional) for greater part of the year and the students are forced to go to surrounding forests. In the hostel, 22 boys are accommodated in a single room that too on six beds and in another room 42 boys are accommodated on 14 beds. These 42 boys are above 14 years of age and such conditions can give rise to homosexuality among the kids”, said Srivastava.
