Turning a blind eye to their woes
Ravi Bali

THEY are 350 pairs of hands seeking justice for the last 537 days. Rain, snow, hail, or sunshine, they have been demonstrating before the Himachal Pradesh secretariat in Shimla waiting for the government to finally open its eyes to their plight. But till date, the powers that be have turned a blind eye towards them. It is indeed ironical, because those on the dharna are visually impaired asking for concessions that are generally seen as legitimate and are available to the blind in other states.

What they have got instead is the strong arm of the law. They have been lathicharged four times by the police and thrown behind bars at least half a dozen times. In jail, they have also been allegedly tortured by the prison authorities. But they have refused to give up or be cowed down.

The force behind the struggle is a robustly built Shobu Ram, who is a double graduate from Delhi University. He is the president of the H.P. Blind Persons Association, which was formed on October 24, 1999. The association has 350 members. The youngest, Sidharth Kumar, is just 21 years old and is also the general secretary.

The major demands of the association are the implementation of one per cent reservation in jobs for the blind as per the Government of India's notification of 1997, speedy recruitment to various posts in government and semi-government organisations, better promotional avenues and bonus grace time of at least 20 minutes in competitive and civil services examinations. Their other demands include Rs 1000 special unemployment allowance as is the case in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi and free travel passes outside the state.

According to Shobu Ram, "The plight of the blind is pathetic in HP. No one cares about our fate. We have requested the H.P. government several times to make the blind self-reliant by allotting shops to them as has been done recently in Delhi. However, all our pleas have fallen on deaf ears and we have been sitting here for the last 537 days braving the elements. Our agitation is perhaps the longest undertaken by the blind any where in the world. It is a record that is shameful."

The struggle started on September 3, 2000, when they called on the then Director, Women and Social Welfare, and later on the Secretary and the Minister concerned. But nothing came out of these meetings and the offers made by the government were way below the demands of the association.

On December 3, 2000, the association did not observe the World Disabled Day. They were assured that their demands would be met by March. But when nothing moved, the association started its agitation. It lasted for 68 days. When there was still no response from the government they decided to sit on a fast- unto-death from March 7, 2001. In a couple of days, the condition of Domeshwer Kumar from Karsog and Fakir Chand from Nankhari deteriorated to such an extent that they had to be admitted to a hospital.

After a few days, a lathi charge was ordered on them. Four persons were seriously injured. More such action was to follow. "We have lived through humiliation and torture at the hands of the HP government. We are not making any unreasonable demands. Every official, every minister and even the former CM Virbhadra Singh has pleaded our case. Singh, in fact, raised the issue in the Vidhan Sabha a few times. However, the Dhumal government has dragged its feet unnecessarily. It seems it has no heart," says Shobu Ram who has camped with his supporters in a dingy rain shelter near the secretariat. "We will not back down and will fight this battle to the very end, even if it means another 537 days in the biting cold and the rain," he declares resolutely.