Even disability assessment is an issue

[The Desi DISpatch]

22-AUG-2015

P.V. SRIVIDYA

 

 

Settu, with spinal deformity and contractures, at his home in Periapallathur, Pennagaram.

Certification for differently abled is hampered by lack of guidelines, trained staff

KRISHNAGIRI : Settu’s every dawn is one of dependence. Born with a spinal deformity, contractures and lymphedema, this fatherless boy has lived all 20 years of his life under the care of his partially mentally challenged, epileptic mother in the remote village of Periapallathur in Pennagaram here. 

Sometime in May, a chance meeting with Karuraan, the local office-bearer of the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently-abled and Care-givers (TARATDAC), during a membership drive in remote areas revealed that the cent-percent immobile Settu had never known disabled assistance. 

“The boy’s mother would suffer severe convulsions, and there was no help for him. He had to be lifted by two persons for basic movement,” says Mr. Karuraan. When he was taken to the fortnightly differently-abled camp for disabled certificate here at the Collectorate, Settu was stamped as 50 per cent disabled, after a 15-minute assessment by the orthopedic surgeon S.Krishnakumar of Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital.

“He was taken in, and we were not allowed inside. When we asked the doctor about the low disability certification, the surgeon said it was not our place to question. Then we approached the differently abled welfare officer, and we were told the same thing,” says Mr. Karuraan. A fortnight later, Mr. Karuraan, who himself has partial visual impairment, took Settu to second camp at the Collectorate, but was turned away on the ground that once the disability is certified, it can’t be revised. 

When contacted, Dr.Shridhar, Professor of Orthopedics at Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital, blamed the TARATDAC for “escalating the issue”.  “The boy has severe contractures, spinal deformity, lymphedema. We examine 100-150 patients within a forenoon and we have five minutes for each patient. In some cases, they are asked to return to reinvestigation. But they may not turn up”.

This has flagged the issue of broad principles of disability assessment and the lack of training on part of the medical administration, says Namburajan of TARATDAC. “The State lacks a tangible guideline on disability assessment and the doctors are unaware of the Centre’s guidelines.”

Role of specialist

The disability assessment guidelines issued summon the “conscience of the specialist.” It explicitly reads that “where a certain percentage limit is to be exercised, the specialist should use her/his conscience in making a substantive assessment of disability.”

A five to 15-minute examination in these camps seals the chances of the disabled, as has been shown in this case. The caregiver accompanying the disabled is not allowed entry, leaving the disabled to the whims of the time-pressed, untrained certifying doctor. Almost in all districts, while the disabled travel several kilometres, doctors never arrive on time and stay for less time.

“Even the Differently-abled Welfare Officer, who can intervene in good faith when such gross assessment is made does not,” says a retired former Differently-abled Welfare Officer of Nagapattinam.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/even-disability-assessment-is-an-issue/article7567961.ece