Times of India
07 April 2010
By Kumar Manish
Ahmedabad, India

Tenacious Fighter
Ranjan Vaghela had to run from pillar to post for weeks in 2006 to get a disability certificate. She then filed a RTI application seeking to know the reasons for the long delay. Vaghela said, “The SWD officials were not forthcoming in their replies to the RTI application in the stipulated 30–day period. We had to file a plea with the RTI commissioner to get the information.” “The commissioner found our case genuine and fined the SWD official of Rs 25,000 as a penalty for the delay in giving the information. However, the official concerned appealed stating that he had two districts, Kheda and Anand, to handle and this had led to delay in providing information. His fine was then reduced to Rs 1,000. It took me months to get the information,” she said. Beaming with confidence, Vaghela said, “Now we get dignified treatment from the officials and sometimes they also ask for help on RTI queries.”

This petite 35–year–old woman, Ranjan Vaghela, suffers from permanent visual impairment but her knack for looking beyond boundaries is phenomenal.

Vaghela has fought a lone battle for rights of physically challenged in Anand through Right to Information (RTI) Act. She was in Ahmedabad to participate in an RTI conference recently.

She is a beacon of hope for other physically challenged people who are now taking up RTI as a means to achieve their goals. Vaghela, the daughter of a worker in a crematorium, is the most sought after person among the fellow physically challenged persons seeking guidance in availing the government benefits at her native place. Vaghela had suffered at the hands of officials of Social Welfare Department (SWD), Anand, while procuring a medical disability certificate for getting concession on government buses. The certificate is a crucial document for the physically challenged people to avail the government schemes and facilities.

Vaghela says, “It was a Herculean task to get the certificate from the officials. They always kept on dilly–dallying in issuing the certificate for one reason or other. It is only through the certificate that we get government benefits so important for our survival. But the SWD officials were not interested in our pleas.”

Under Persons with the Disability (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995, the medical boards have been constituted at state, district and taluka levels to assess the percentage and the level of disability. Following this disability certificates are issued to those having disability of 40 per cent and above.