It is the season of school and college admissions, and differently abled students in Kerala are in a bind with institutions demanding medical board certificates issued by the State government, even though they possess unique disability ID cards (UDID) issued by the Central government.
Even other differently abled persons face similar issues with the State departments as most of them are yet to get familiar with UDIDs.
“UDIDs and medical certificates by approved doctors are recognised documents to prove disability. Yet, several government offices continue to demand medical board certificates that are in short supply,” said Shahul Madavoor, chairman of the Societies for Rehabilitation of Differently Abled (SRDA), citing that the State government had issued no proper guidelines in that regard.
Medical board certificates were recognised identification for the differently abled until a few years ago. But since the UDID came into existence, the medical board does not convene as often as before and many differently abled people forsake it, believing that UDIDs are enough. When they realise that it is not so, they have to wait for months on end for the medical board to convene and issue certificates based on online registrations.
“Students are the worst affected. They don’t have time to wait for the medical board to convene with admissions in progress,” said Mr. Madavoor.
Similarly, differently abled people who already have UDIDs need to surrender them to renew their medical board certificates. They cannot avail themselves of any benefits during the interim period.
Neither the Social Justice department nor the Social Security Mission has been able to offer a satisfactory solution. “I contacted the Social Justice Office in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. But, officials had no idea about UDID or the issues that we face,” said Mr. Madavoor.
The SRDA has taken up the matter with Social Justice Minister R. Bindu, demanding that the department issue clear guidelines to government offices. “They should either agree that UDIDs are good enough or else convene the medical board more often in all districts,” said Mr. Madavoor.
