Around 50 visually impaired persons attempted to return their disability cards at the Directorate of Welfare of Differently Abled Persons in Chennai on Friday, February 23. The Director, M Lakshmi, refused to accept the submission of their cards and held talks. Visually impaired persons who are both students and graduates have been holding protests for the last 12 days, demanding the government to fulfil the promised 1% quota in government teaching jobs. 

The protestors have been demanding that the government recruit 1,000 visually impaired people as teaching faculty, who will constitute the 1% quota. Ruben, one of the protesters, told TNM, “We are tired of this. If the government can’t do this for us, then we don’t want any benefits they are extending to us. So some of us have decided to return our disability cards to M Lakshmi, the Director of the Directorate of Welfare of Differently Abled Persons.” 

At the Directorate in Chennai’s Wellington college campus, several protestors pointed out their demand is for the government to secure their livelihoods. They have also been demanding an increase in the unemployment relief fund to Rs 5,000 from 1,500 as it was insufficient.

On Thursday, the Director said that the state government held exams in February for visually impaired persons and around 655 persons had applied for 117 vacancies. Of the 655 persons, 151 people had appeared for examinations to fill 60 vacancies. “The government is making efforts to fill the vacancies. I urge them to discontinue the protest,” she said. 

J Kumar, another protesting graduate, told TNM, “During talks on February 23, the Director mentioned existing schemes and funds. The government is not addressing our demands to increase these funds and to employ more of us for teaching jobs.” He added that they have decided to continue protesting.

On February 20, the visually impaired protestors were forcibly detained while holding demonstrations at Sterling Road in Chennai’s Nungambakkam.  

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