NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union and state govts whether currency notes and medicine strips be integrated with braille system to enable 100% visually impaired people not remain dependent on others to ascertain denominations of currency notes and expiry dates of medicines.
On a PIL by 12-year-old 100% visually impaired whiz kid Medhansh Soni, filed through his mother Ramta Soni, a bench of Chief Justices D Y Chandrachud, and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra sought responses from the Centre and the states within four weeks.
Medhansh, who won eight gold medals across diverse subjects – general knowledge, mathematics, science and English – in international Olympiads, has sought “guidelines for the implementation of Braille Integration System and to address the nuance of indirect or hostile discrimination against visually impaired persons.”.
The petitioner said failure to enact a comprehensive braille integration system throughout institutions in India has significantly disadvantaged visually impaired individuals, rendering access to public information elusive. “As a result, a substantial segment of society is subjected to undue hardship and exclusion from vital resources and opportunities,” he said.
Visual impairment significantly hinders normal functioning in human beings, especially in the participation & economic productivity domains, he said. “According to the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey, almost 6.2 million People are blind in India. The prevalence of blindness varies by region and demography with rural areas having a rate that is 1.37 times higher than urban areas. But the problem is not that someone is blind, but it is the society which is acting blind towards the needs and problems of such blind people,” Soni said.
“India being the biggest democracy of the world for more than 70 years it is sad to note that the country is lagging behind other nations in providing them adequate facility to live life with dignity and equal opportunity even though the advent of braille and other supportive technologies have provided some succor against loss of vision,” he said in the petition filed through Nishant Kumar.
Among the difficulties faced by visually impaired persons, the petitioner listed some of them – difficulty in identifying currency notes, inability to read product labels and medicine management challenges in navigating public places, and barriers in accessing information. He said demonetization has resulted in reduction of currency note sizes making it doubly difficult for blind persons to ascertain the value of currency notes.
On a PIL by 12-year-old 100% visually impaired whiz kid Medhansh Soni, filed through his mother Ramta Soni, a bench of Chief Justices D Y Chandrachud, and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra sought responses from the Centre and the states within four weeks.
Medhansh, who won eight gold medals across diverse subjects – general knowledge, mathematics, science and English – in international Olympiads, has sought “guidelines for the implementation of Braille Integration System and to address the nuance of indirect or hostile discrimination against visually impaired persons.”.
The petitioner said failure to enact a comprehensive braille integration system throughout institutions in India has significantly disadvantaged visually impaired individuals, rendering access to public information elusive. “As a result, a substantial segment of society is subjected to undue hardship and exclusion from vital resources and opportunities,” he said.
Visual impairment significantly hinders normal functioning in human beings, especially in the participation & economic productivity domains, he said. “According to the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey, almost 6.2 million People are blind in India. The prevalence of blindness varies by region and demography with rural areas having a rate that is 1.37 times higher than urban areas. But the problem is not that someone is blind, but it is the society which is acting blind towards the needs and problems of such blind people,” Soni said.
“India being the biggest democracy of the world for more than 70 years it is sad to note that the country is lagging behind other nations in providing them adequate facility to live life with dignity and equal opportunity even though the advent of braille and other supportive technologies have provided some succor against loss of vision,” he said in the petition filed through Nishant Kumar.
Among the difficulties faced by visually impaired persons, the petitioner listed some of them – difficulty in identifying currency notes, inability to read product labels and medicine management challenges in navigating public places, and barriers in accessing information. He said demonetization has resulted in reduction of currency note sizes making it doubly difficult for blind persons to ascertain the value of currency notes.
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