It is a big news item in all dailies in all languages all over India that about ninety thousand people will be employed under the Ministry of Railway. As usual, the visually handicapped expected new openings for them. After all, this is an unprecedented recruitment drive by the Government of India. This is also the biggest-ever recruitment process in world history. The Government must not forget it obligation of 4% reservation of posts for persons with disabilities as laid down in the new Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. This 4% reservation includes 1% quota for the visually handicapped.

Section 34(1) of the RPD Act says, “Every appropriate Government shall appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent. of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one per cent. each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (a), (b) and (c) and one per cent. for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (d) and (e), ……”

But here again, there is no such good news for them, as happens in many other cases. This is yet another big recruitment drive where the demand of visually handicapped candidates was ignored. There are 62 vacancies for visually handicapped candidates in Notification No. CEN 02/2018 out of 62,907 vacancies in total. It is not even 0.1% of total seats. In the list of posts of Technicians advertised in Notification No. CEN 01/2018 there is no reservation for visually handicapped candidates in a total of 17,673 vacancies. We do not, of course, demand that technical posts should be filled up with visually handicapped candidates where special technical knowledge with sufficient vision is necessary.

But why should not the Government fill up the backlog of vacancies? Are 4% posts in Indian Railway filled up by physically handicapped persons? Are 1% Railway posts filled up by visually handicapped persons?

The last date of applying online is not yet over. We appeal to the Government to include the posts for visually handicapped candidates in this recruitment drive. Otherwise, people will say, the Government does not abide by its own rules.