Pune: Police on Monday afternoon lathi-charged hundreds of disabled youth and held them in custody for five hours without providing food or first aid. Later, the police released the injured youth without taking them to a hospital.
On Tuesday, over 15 injured people had to struggle to get treatment at a government hospital.
On Monday, over 1,000 hearing-impaired people gathered at the Commissionarate of Social Welfare in Pune to protest for their long pending demands, including provision of jobs and education.
At around 2:30 pm, the Pune police resorted to a lathi-charge on disabled youth who were protesting peacefully near the commissionarate’s gate. In the lathi-charge, over 40 were injured, of which three were seriously injured and had to be admitted to a hospital.
Sibaji Panda, a hearing-impaired person who participated in the protest and witnessed the lathi-charge said the protest was peaceful. “Still a team of over ten policemen lathi-charged and hit us mercilessly.”
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He said more than 250 protestors were taken to the police headquarters at Shivajinagar. “They were not given food and medicines till 8 pm, after which they were released,” he said.
A majority of the protesters were from other parts of the state and had no place to go, Panda said.
He added that two seriously injured people were left at the doors of the Sassoon Hospital. “They were without an interpreter and had to struggle to communicate or get treatment.” The two people, Sabir Shaikh and Krishna V.V., have now been discharged and have returned home, Panda said.
About 13 people who were injured in the lathi-charge arrived at the Sassoon General Hospital, a government institution, on Tuesday morning for treatment. They claimed that the authorities did not take them seriously and did not give them first aid. Some had to wait for over four hours to get treatment.
Pramod Surve, a hearing-impaired farmer from Sangli, participated in the protest. He said he was hit from behind by the police. The police took him to the headquarters. He said, “I had immense pain in my calf and body due to the lathi-charge. I was not given any medicine till 8 pm. Later the ambulance attendant sprayed painkiller and I was released.”
He went back to the venue of the protest. “Since morning, we have waiting at the hospital, but have not received any treatment.”
It was only after journalists and activists started arriving at the hospital that doctors took the injured protestors in for treatment.
Surve (in white shit) at the Sassoon hospital. Credit: Varsha Torgalkar
Demands of hearing-impaired
Manoj Patwari, president of State Deaf and Dumb Association, said of the 18 lakh hearing or speech-impaired people in the state, half were either students or youth looking for jobs. “The schools in the state do not have interpreters who can teach students in sign language. Hence, most of us cannot pursue higher education or even struggle to complete schooling,” he said.
Though there is a 1% reservation for disabled people in government jobs and educational institutes, most people find it difficult to apply because of the government’s failure to ensure that they are taught in sign language.
He added, “Recently Balaji Manjule, IAS who is disabled himself, was made commissioner of this department. He was working sensitively to sort out issues of the disabled, but he was transferred within three months.”
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Patwari said unlike the rest of the country, Maharshtra does not have degree colleges for hearing or speech-impaired people. “There are no interpreters in colleges for engineering, medical and other commercial courses. Hence, we cannot study there, despite getting admission by merit. The government should start vocal courses through the ITI for deaf and dumb so that we can get jobs,” Patwari said.
There have been several instances of able-bodied people getting disabled certificates and reserved jobs, Patwari said. “There are a few people in many government hospitals who give fake certificates to able-bodied people. They also use the certificates to receive free treatment and enjoy the benefits of government schemes and secure government jobs,” he said.
Because disabled people cannot access higher education courses like DEd or BEd, they are unable to get jobs as teachers in primary schools meant for hearing and speech-impaired people, he said. “The government should allow us to be hired with a degree and later avail the opportunity to complete BEd or DEd,” Patwari suggested.
Not the first protest
This is not the first time the association has protested at the commissionarate. Earlier, the department and the social justice minister promised to fulfil their demands. But when there was no progress, the protest resumed.
Patwari said that the police refused to provide permission for the protest. “When we started to protest, they lathi-charged,” he said.
Following the lathi-charge, Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackerey and many other opposition leaders visited the protestors and also criticised the police. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has additional charge of the home ministry.
In response, the CM said a thorough enquiry would be conducted into the incident.
Surprisingly, despite videos of the lathi-charge going viral, the police continue to deny, claiming they used only “mild-force”. Police officers were unwilling ready to speak on the record.