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Employment > Awards > N.C.P.E.D.P. - Shell Helen Keller Awards 2004

The Trail Blazers

Rigzian Sampheal

Rigzian was injured in a serious traffic accident as a boy. After being bed-ridden for a year, and undergoing a dozen operations on his right leg, he made a remarkable recovery, but is still unable to bend his knee. A Commerce graduate and an M.B.A. from the University of Delhi, Rigzian was ranked 120th in the Civil Services Examination, 2002, qualifying for the Indian Administrative Service.

D. S. Lokesh Kumar

Lokesh had a mild attack of polio before he was a year old, the only legacy of which is a dropped foot. A holder of a Masters Degree in Economics from Mysore University, Lokesh was ranked 132nd in the Civil Services Examination, 2002, qualifying for the Indian Administrative Service.

Ravi Kumar Arora

Born with chronic low vision and myopia, Ravi graduated in Economics (Hons.) from Madhupur College, Bhagalpur University. He was ranked 325th in the Civil Services Examination, 2001, qualifying for the Indian Postal Service.

What links these three young men? All three were found ineligible for the Civil Services, in spite of having cleared the examinations successfully, entirely on merit and not due to any disability quotas.

The three didn't take this lying down – Rigzian and Lokesh made representations to the President, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Secretariat, the Law Commission, the Disability Commission and the Disabled Rights Group, while Ravi petitioned the Delhi High Court.

Taking on the might of the bureaucracy meant a long, hard and lonely battle, which went all the way to the High Court and finally to the Prime Minister's Office. It was not an easy struggle but they were convinced that justice would eventually prevail and they would be vindicated.

And that has proved to be the case. Their steadfast determination to fight against discrimination earned them the jobs and status they rightly deserve. And perhaps more importantly, by taking up the fight for disabled people to be accepted into all levels of the Civil Services, these three trailblazers have made it possible for other disabled people to follow the careers of their choice.

Their actions have broken down the doors of discrimination in the higher echelons of Government service.

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