Act against Govt College for using debarred&offensive languge for Persons with Disability in admission form, UGC urged

                             Vishant Nagvenkar

Prakash Kamat

Panaji, March 20,2022- In a complaint addressed to the Vice Chancellor of Goa University with copies to Goa State Disability Commissioner, University Grants Commission and other government authorities, Mr. Vishant Nagvenkar, a post graduate student and an officer of Goa government has demanded that strict action be taken against college authorities for using debarred and offensive expressions about persons with disability(PswD) in its admission form.

The Government College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Sanquelim Goa, have failed to adhere to the Circulars issued by the Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa, Panaji Goa and also by the Government of India and, therefore, have violated the provisions of the aforesaid Act in letter and spirit and have used the abbreviation “PH” on its admission form which denotes / elaborates as “Physically Handicapped”. Perhaps such barred / banned expression are used in all the Admission Form of the Government as well as Private Institutions which needs to be curtailed and restricted.

"The Institutions which should have been imparting wisdom, ideas and correct knowledge to the generations to come, however, the past generation have already learned the wrong expression and the same have been using openly thereby violating the provisions of the afore referred Acts and also the Constitution of India," lamented the complainant.

The act of using banned and barred expression appears to be purposeful and intentional to lower the dignity, degrade, disgrace, stigmatize, stagnate, condemn the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities  in order to detriment, demoralize, defame, dishonour and humiliate to "prove that they are useless, burden, ineffective, inefficient and worthless to the society," said the complainant and asserted that the ignorance of the Law cannot be an excuse to commit offense. 

The Institutions have been imparting wrong and faulty knowledge or expression to the young students and if the same is not rectified immediately the same shall continue for next generations because these faulty expression and vocabulary addressing the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities which have been used by the learned employees of the Goa University and their subordinates Institutions for past several years after enactment of the Persons with Disability Act in the year 1995. 

The Goa University should have taken the cognisance of the aforesaid Circular which was issued in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which the India is party and signatory.

Considering the aforesaid facts, the Vice Chancellor may kindly request all the authorities above and institutions, especially the Law Colleges using a wrong, banned, barred, offensive expression which is against the Constitution of India to rectify all the forms, documents, signage and all such documents, correspondence teaching material, Power Point Presentation, etc., immediately where such barred / offensive expressions or abbreviations are used.  And to begin with I  kindly request you to change or rectify the Admission Forms used for the PGDAS course for which the applicant is enrolled.

I may further also request you to initiate a disciplinary action against the erroring officer / official who is instrumental in using a offensive of barred expression / abbreviation addressing the Persons with Disabilities so that such act of offending Persons with Benchmark Disabilities is not repeated in future.  This will pass a strong message amongst the masses to restrict any offensive act against the Persons with Disabilities.

It is further humbly suggested to cancel the doctorate, PhD, degree MPhil of those who have submission there research / papers / documentation on the Persons with Disabilities using a barred expression “Handicapped” or “Handicap” and also in future bar the use of banned expression in any reports / submission / research and ensure using of expression “Persons with Disabilities” or “Persons with Benchmark Disabilities” or any other expression permitted as per Law, demands the complainant.(eom).