I remember the day I appeared for my first UGC-NET-JRF exam at a garrison on the outskirts of Srinagar. A student with a physical disability was asked by the supervisory staff to pull his pants down. Yes, in a public corridor, to “prove” his orthopaedic condition. That is how cruelly insensitive our systems can be, how little they understand about dignity. I stood up and intervened. You, as a reader, can imagine the humiliation that student must have felt.

Now, let us pause for a moment and ask why our exams are inaccessible? Around 2.5 lakh students of class 10, 11 and 12 are writing their board exams this November. Universities, colleges and recruitment agencies continue their exams throughout the year. But are Jammu and Kashmir’s exam centres truly equipped for everyone? Do they have ramps, lifts, wide corridors and accessible toilets? Do invigilators know how to assist a blind, deaf or neurodivergent student with dignity? Do our Boards and universities follow the national accessibility rules, or are those rules lost somewhere between Delhi’s desks and Kashmir’s classrooms? Before a school is chosen as an exam centre, does anyone check if it is accessible? During district-level training, are students with disabilities even considered stakeholders?

 Paper promises

Our government promises welfare for students with disabilities. But welfare is not justice. Welfare is a bandage. Rights are the cure. When the state fails to uphold those rights, to ensure........

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