6 months ago
2
When his information for vice-president successful the upcoming Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections was rejected connected property grounds, 24-year-old Sandesh Shivkumar Sonkamble felt crushed.
Living with osteogenesis imperfecta, a uncommon information that makes bones fragile, Mr. Sonkamble is older than astir of his batchmates owed to years mislaid to disability-related challenges and delayed schooling. According to the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines, which govern pupil national elections nationwide, undergraduate candidates indispensable beryllium betwixt 17 and 22 years old. The bounds rises to 24-25 for postgraduate students and 28 for PhD scholars. That makes Mr. Sonkamble, a final-year BA pupil astatine JNU’s School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, ineligible to contest.
Unwilling to judge this arsenic the extremity of his governmental aspirations, helium has written to Vice-Chancellor (VC) Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, appealing against the cancellation of his candidature and seeking an age relaxation for students with disabilities. “Differently abled radical get property relaxation successful acquisition and employment. So, why not successful the electoral process too? he said.
‘Bound by guidelines’
Mr. Sonkamble’s demand draws spot from the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which mandates up to 5 years’ property relaxation successful higher acquisition for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD), individuals with a disablement of 40% oregon more, arsenic certified by a aesculapian authority. Similarly, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) rules let a relaxation of 10 years successful cardinal recruitment, extended to 15 years for candidates from the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
Ms. Pandit said the medication has nary relation successful the JNUSU elections arsenic it is conducted by the student-run Election Committee (EC). An EC subordinate said they are “bound by the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines and the JNUSU constitution”, adding that the lone way Mr. Sonkamble will get respite is by approaching the court.
Osteogenesis imperfecta oregon brittle bony illness falls nether the locomotor disablement category. Certified with a 49% disability, Mr. Sonkamble has lived with implicit a 1000 fractures since birth. Hailing from a Dalit household successful Maharashtra’s Latur district, Mr. Sonkamble recalls however his parents delayed his schooling retired of fearfulness for his safety. “They were disquieted I mightiness get wounded oregon that I would not acceptable in,” helium said.
Homeschooled for overmuch of his aboriginal life, helium completed his schoolhouse acquisition astatine 21. In his missive to the V-C, helium explained: “The hold happened owed to deficiency of awareness, my carnal challenges, fiscal constraints, and societal stigma.”
Now, utilizing an electrical wheelchair, Mr. Sonkamble navigates JNU’s field with comparative ease and has made friends astatine the university, dissimilar his schoolhouse experience. But adjacent assemblage beingness has not been without obstacles. He said a road mishap successful September 2023 acceptable his studies back and forced him to repetition his archetypal year.
‘Need representation’
For Mr. Sonkamble, the tendency to contention the elections goes beyond idiosyncratic ambition. “I don’t see students with disabilities successful pupil unions, nor successful the government. To rise our issues, we request to beryllium represented first,” he said. Running arsenic an autarkic candidate, his main agenda is to marque JNU much accessible by ensuring ramps, lifts, and smoother pathways crossed hostels and classrooms. Currently, helium lives successful a hostel with the assistance of a caretaker, a relative, who helps him determination astir the campus.
“For wheelchair users, JNU’s terrain tin beryllium tough. There are galore ditches and bumps connected the roads.” Mr. Sonkamble said. Undeterred by the rejection, helium is present consulting lawyers to petition the tribunal for an property relaxation argumentation for students with disabilities. While Mr. Sonkamble acknowledges that the November 4 election date is accelerated approaching, helium says this is simply a conflict worthy fighting. “It mightiness instrumentality time, but if we win, it volition acceptable a precedent for each students with disabilities crossed the country,” he added.
