https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/dr-m-m-pallam-raju-union-minister-for-hrd-government-of-india-prevent-eviction-of-a-disabled-teacher-dr-g-n-saibaba-by-delhi-university?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_after_sign#
Please sign the petition and also forward the link to your contacts who might be interested in signing the petition.
Regards
Hany Babu.
Associate Professor
Department of English
University of Delhi
hanybabu@gmail.com
The text of the petition is reproduced below:
Minister of Human Resource Development
Government of India
Dear Dr. M. M. Pallam Raju,
We the undersigned are astounded to know that the University of Delhi is
withdrawing a facility provided to a severely disabled teacher of its
College. Taking recourse to technicalities as the benchmark to forcefully
evacuate a disabled teacher ignoring further national and international
developments in law pertaining to the differently-abled is a sad state of
affairs of one of the leading universities in India. Any future perusal by
the university authorities of the question of special accommodation at the
warden’s flat, Gwyer Hall accorded to Dr. G. N. Saibaba cannot ignore the
specific grounds of his 90 percent disability.
Universities should be centres of excellence, where cutting edge ideas are
discussed and deliberated towards building a future which is humane and
compassionate. University of Delhi is witness to a comparatively sizeable
increase in the intake of differently-abled people as faculty, students
and non-teaching staff. Given the fact that there are few Universities in
the country with such intake it becomes imperative that Delhi University
also be a model in providing a humane and dignified space for the
differently-abled. And this demands urgently a disable-sensitive
administration which is humanely conversant with the new developments in
jurisprudence pertaining to the differently-abled.
Under the disabilities laws and United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities 2006 to which India is a signatory country since
2007, it is the primary obligation of all institutions of the Indian
Government to provide all facilities including “reasonable accommodation”.
Instead of extending the facilities and making them broad-based for all
disabled teachers and students on the campus, the present proceedings of
the University to forcefully evict Dr. G. N. Saibaba is highly deplorable.
What is required today is to make the University Campuses habitable and
create workable environment to the differently-abled teachers and
students. It is the legal and ethical obligation of the University to
provide reasonable accommodation on the campuses to the differently-abled
teachers and students in order to increase their participation in the
higher education.
The University of Delhi cannot take away this facility provided to Dr. G.
N. Saibaba on any technical grounds which is a total misreading of the
very grounds on which the whole premises was allotted to him. On the
contrary such facility has to be broadened and extended to all
differently-abled teachers and students of the Colleges and Departments.
Thus we would like you to:
1. Instruct the University to desist from withdrawing the residence
facility to Dr. G.N. Saibaba and,
2. Constitute a high powered committee to find ways and means to provide
all facilities including “reasonable accommodation” to disabled persons in
the University as mandated by the disabilities laws and United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratified by India in
2007.
Issued for endorsement by:
Anand Teltumbde, Professor, School of Management, IIT, Kharagpur. Contact:
tanandraj@gmail.com.
Maya Pandit Narkar, Professor, Department of English Language Teaching,
English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Contact:
maya@efluniversity.ac.in.
