PwD Students Miss NEET Counselling Due to Unavailability of Testing Facility
Safdarjung hospital, being unable to issue the PwD NEET Counselling fitness certificate due to missing Test Facilities has contacted and sought the assistance of AIIMS Delhi. The situation is similar in cities like Kolkata, Chandigarh and Mumbai.
Even after the counselling process of NEET started Wednesday, the students with hearing disability failed to get a certificate for proving eligibility of NEET counselling for disabled students. In the national capital, the Safdarjang Hospital doctors issue the certificate to the students with hearing disability to certify them eligible for NEET. students seeking the certificate did not get it due to the unavailability of ‘Speech Discrimination Test’ in Safdarjang Hospital.
The Government of India associated 10 centres across the country to test and certify the medical education eligibility of students recognised as PwD (Person with Disabilities) allowing them to appear for NEET Counselling. Safdarjang Hospital is one of the designated centres.
In Delhi and surrounding areas, Safdarjang Hospital is the only one to issue certificates where other centres in the Northern part of India are located at Jaipur (SMS Medical College) and Chandigarh (Government Medical College and Hospital).
A father of a student who needed the certificate said that his daughter who lost her hearing two years ago has a permanent disability certificate issued by the state which certifies 56% disability. He said that he is not sure if he needs the certificate for NEET Counselling and due to the confusion, he is travel from Jind every morning at 9 am to fetch the certificate but he has only been disappointed for past 10 days.
Another family who travelled from Indore expressed their helplessness as they could not go home due to the unavailability of Test Facilities. They informed that they applied for the certificate as soon as NEET results were out. The family expressed with grief that they now think their ward with 60% disability will be unable to get admission in a good medical college as they are set to miss the counselling on 24th if the situation continues.
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A senior doctor said about the issue that the test is only introduced last year and Safdarjung Hospital does not have the proper infrastructure to test the ability of students to understand different words. He informed that many top hospitals do not have the facility in Delhi and Safdarjang is trying to get the assistance of AIIMS which has the facilities.
Dr Satendra Singh the Associate Professor of Physiology, University College of Medical Sciences said that the issue is not limited to Delhi as the students who visited Mumbai and Kolkata are also facing the same issue. A student who visited the Chandigarh hospital got the certificate after four days and this is not the first time the issue is being faced. However, they do have disability certification from their respective state of residence. Dr Satendra has informed that he has filed a PIL regarding the issue but the hearing of the PIL is scheduled in July. So the uncertainty above the PwD category candidates is to be there throughout the counselling process.
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