JU wants disabled-friendly status for both campus

Kolkata: The Jadavpur University has written to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities for awarding disabled-friendly status to both of its two campuses at Jadavpur and Salt Lake. The status of the centre will entail funds from the University Grants Commission through which the university will be able to have the facilities of lifts and ramps in all the buildings of the two campuses.

At present there are as many as 40 buildings in JU in its two campuses and 21 of them do not have lift facilities. The Jadavpur University runs a new centre named Special Education & HEPSN (Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs) Cell that caters to the need of differently-abled students.

"Every year 40 to 50 students that take admission in JU are differently-abled- mainly suffering from physical disabilities or visual impairment. 80 percent of these students are from Arts faculty. They face a lot of difficulty in going for classes as most of the buildings do not have elevators or ramps. We have written to the ministry for such facilities. I met Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar some days back and have urged him to look into the matter on a priority basis," said Professor Manojit Mondal who is coordinator of the Cell.

From December, the Cell is introducing an android-based app that will inform the disabled students.

"It is a GPRS based voice command navigator that will give voice command in an android-based mobile phone facilitating a blind student to move in the right direction without stick or anyone else's help," Mondal said.