Deaf Will Get Equal Concession in Railways
Deputy Superintendent Sonu Verma, a 100% deaf individual, successfully challenged discrimination by Indian Railways, securing equal 75% concession for all Deaf passengers.
Deputy Superintendent Sonu Verma is Deaf. He is working in the Government ITI of Karnal, Haryana.
Sonu Verma is 100 percent deaf. He was not getting a concession in train fare just because of being deaf. He then filed a petition against the Indian Railways a year back in the court of the State Commissioner for Divyangjan, Panchkula. In the petition, under the RPWD Act-2016, he termed this railway policy as discriminatory. The proceedings of the case took about a year but when the verdict came, it was in favor of Sonu Verma. The verdict will be beneficial for the entire Deaf population. Railways gave different percentages of concession for different disabilities. Until now, Railways gave 75% concession and 25% concession in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, in its fare to Blind, Orthopedic and Mentally Challenged, but 50% to deaf mute. Deaf are not eligible for concession in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. Also until now railway concession was given only to those Deaf who could not speak. Whenever the Deaf got their audiogram and wanted railway concession, they were asked to speak and only if their speech was poor, they were given railway concession. If the Deaf even spoke a word clearly, they were refused to be given concession. According to Sonu Verma this policy of Railways against RPWD Act 2016. Hence he filed a petition in State Disability Court against discrimination. On 28th June 2023, the court of State Commissioner for Disabilities, Haryana, Raj Kumar Makkar gave the decision in favor of Sonu Verma.
The court said that Verma is Hearing Impaired person (as mentioned in the RPWD) but the Railways has framed a policy which mandates that if a person has hearing impairment as well as speech impairment (SHI) can only get concession. This is not available individually to hearing impaired or speech impaired. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 prescribes specific disabilities.After going through the RPWD act the court found that hearing impairment has been defined as a separate category which has deaf and hard of hearing. Speech and language disability has been characterized in the separate category. Hence both cannot be clubbed. A person can be of multiple disabilities but speech impairment has separately been defined. The speech impaired have their own difficulties and it is the mandatory duty of every establishment to provide accessibility and equal opportunity to every person with disabilities in accordance with RPwD Act, 2016. The court asked Railways how they could club 2 disabilities together? The court also asked railways if they have any rule which entitles Deaf to have the different treatment for the travel in the Indian Railways as has been granted in the categories. The railways could not give any clear rule.Hence, the court ordered the railways to give an equal concession of 75% to the Deaf as well. This order should be implemented within 3 months. With this decision, deaf with speech disability and only deaf passengers across the country will get the benefit of concession in train fare. After the decision, Sonu Verma said that this is a historic decision, all deaf will get its benefit. Deaf were deprived of this till now, their problem has also been solved. Sonu Verma said that he has been fighting for the interests of the Deaf for a long time. He also fought for his promotion and won. On his petition, the High Court had issued orders to the government to explore the possibility of loan on the employee's own marriage.
