DU aspirants with learning disabilities stranded as no authority to issue certificate
DU admission 2018: Students with learning disabilities have to submit a disability certificate along with their application. However, the hospital listed as the authority to issue the disability certificate by the Delhi government has stopped doing so following new rules being framed earlier this year.
Students with learning disabilities are facing difficulty in following Delhi University’s admission procedure because the hospital listed as the authority to issue the disability certificate by the Delhi government has stopped doing so following new rules being framed earlier this year.
According to a Delhi government website, the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) is suppose to issue these certificates.
However, IHBAS said that though they used to issue such certificates in the past, they can no longer do so after new rules under the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016, were notified in January this year.
A resident of Saket said that she had been running from pillar to post since April, trying to get a disability certificate for her dyslexic son.
“His CBSE Class 12 admit card and his CBSE Class 10 marksheet, both mention that he is dyslexic, and we had thought that this would be sufficient. It is only when the admission procedure started, that we realised that we need to get a separate certificate from a government hospital. IHBAS refused to do so,” said the mother of a 17-year-old BA programme aspirant, who requested anonymity.
“According to these guidelines, a psychiatrist has no role in certifying dyslexia. A medical board comprising of a paediatrician and a child psychologist will issue such certifications. As soon as these rules came to our notice, we had written to the competent authorities saying that we will no longer be in a position to issue these certificates,” said Dr Nimesh Desai, director of IHBAS.
Desai said that he had to turn away around 25-30 such families, who had approached him seeking certifications.
Praveen Srivastava, a resident of Ghaziabad, said that he has now approached a government hospital in UP after being turned down by IHBAS.
Sources said that other general hospitals had not been authorised to issue such certificates to children not residing in their zones.
The commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, TD Dhariyal, seemed to be aware of the issues.
“Unfortunately, in Delhi, the health department has not designated a centre for such certifications currently. Earlier, I had said that existing hospitals, which have the provisions should issue such certificates. I have also issued a show cause notice, asking the principal secretary of health to respond as to why this has not been done,” he said.
The principal secretary of health did not respond to calls or text messages.
Bipin Tiwari and Anil Aneja, the officers on special duty at the Equal Opportunity Cell of DU, said that this problem has arisen because applicants leave the procurement of such documents for the last minute.
“We are facing this problem only with students who have learning disabilities, most of whom are dyslexic. We have had around three or four such cases so far. They have woken up at the last minute. There is a proper gazette notification regarding the guidelines. Certifications can’t happen in such a short time,” said Aneja.
