Hostel seats increased for the disabled

Delhi University has waived additional charges from the admission fees of the differently-abled students in colleges and hostels. The varsity has also decided to give 50 per cent subsidy in the hostel’s mess fee.

Recently, seats for disabled in hostel have been increased by two per cent.

The varsity already provides three per cent reservation to them in colleges and hostels. The changes will come into effect from this session.

“The number of differently-abled students has been gradually increasing in the university. Since majority of the students come from out of Delhi, increasing the number of seats in hostels was a requirement,” said a senior official.

The university has also decided to give 50 per cent subsidy in hostel’s mess fee.
Earlier, persons with disability (PWD) students have protested, asking for several facilities.

“Two of our demands have been considered — increase in seats in hostels and removal of additional charges which we had to pay with the admission fee in colleges. The move of increasing hostel seats, which is now five per cent is welcomed,” said Kapil, who had taken part in the protest.

Other demands which include making north campus a traffic-free area, fixing the tactile paths on the pavements, providing special tools for computer access and reading material are still on hold.

“While some college libraries still have basic audio-video hearing tools fixed in computers, they are too less and have worn off. Availability of Braille books in libraries is almost nil in many subjects, which needs to be looked into,” Kapil added.

The official said a research team will make rounds of the colleges soon to collect data regarding the problems disabled students face and changes will be made accordingly.
“Such changes take time. Approval of lot of people is required to get the work done, which delays the process,” he added.