Why allegations that trainee IAS officer misused quota are a body blow to disability rights

Over the last week, India has finally found its very own Kardashians. The only difference is that, in our case, they are called the Khedkars. It all started when the country found out that an Indian Administrative Services trainee was using a siren on her private Audi, though she was not eligible to do so.

This was followed by allegations that she had used the influence of her father, Dileep Khedkar, a former Lok Sabha candidate, to gain privileges like a private cabin. Taking the soap opera forward, news channels were next showing videos of her mother, Manorama Khedkar, brandishing a gun while negotiating the purchase of farmland worth crores of rupees.

If all this wasn’t enough, we soon learned about the path Puja Khedkar followed to enter the coveted administrative services. She had an Other Backward Classes certificate (her father’s net worth is Rs 40 crore and those from the creamy layer cannot avail of it) and had also availed the disability quota though, it is alleged, she did not have a disability.

Puja Khedkar had separate medical certificates for low vision, mental illnesses and locomotor disabilities. She ended up missing six appointments to assess her disability at AIIMS between April and August 2022. However, she continued in the service and flexed her muscles until the media leapt onto her.

On Saturday the Union Public Services Commission filed a first information report against her for faking her identity in order to attempt the entrance exam beyond the number of permissible tries. However, it is clearly not enough. Faith has been broken and as many other cases have come light it is imperative that we see some institutional change.

For the Indian public, Puja Khedkar has been a source of entertainment and great intrigue. But for the disability sector, this controversy has delivered two big body blows.

To begin with, genuine candidates with disabilities are being deprived of places in the Indian bureaucracy.

The media has reported other instances of individuals misusing the disability quota to enter the civil services. Allegations also swelled against Abhishek Singh, who was part of the IAS batch of 2011, claiming a locomotor disability. However, he soon found his passion for acting and quit the services. Today, he is a social media star, frequently sharing pictures and videos of himself dancing and going to the gym.

Singh took to social media to defend himself in a long post, but did not mention the allegations that he had misused the quota.

This controversy also hurts persons with disabilities already in the civil services. The perception is being created that all persons with disabilities in the services have got their job unfairly. That is especially unfair to people with invisible disabilities.

I fear a backlash against civil service aspirants too. Disability has always been a soft target. In the last few years, Union Public Services Commission officials have been trying to ban candidates with disabilities from bringing their own writers for examinations and pushing scribes from a roster created by the commission.

This is problematic at many levels – the candidate is unable to develop a rapport with their writer, the writer might have terrible handwriting, pathetic spelling or might lack technical knowledge. Imagine dictating trigonometric terms to a writer without mathematical knowledge. The writer might be in a bad mood or claim to a person with a visual disability that they are taking dictation faithfully – even as the candidate has no way to check this.

The authorities have argued that persons with disabilities often use writers to cheat in exams. Unfortunately, instead of improving invigilation, they are inclined towards banning writers of personal choice.

In 2011, when I joined a coaching class for civil service aspirants, I was discouraged to learn then though many persons with disability had cracked the daunting exam, they were not offered placements because they were considered medically unfit to be able to contribute to the services.

Things only changed when Ira Singhal broke the glass ceiling in 2014 by becoming the highest-scoring candidate in the civil services exam. She has a spine-related disorder called scoliosis. In 2010, though she had secured a rank good enough to clear the Indian Revenue Service, the services had refused her a posting. It cited her “inability to push, pull and lift”. With no posting in sight, she took the fight to the central administrative tribunal, waging a four-year battle before she was finally placed.

All the while, she kept taking the same, finally topping it and finding a place in the Indian Administrative Service.

I hope these doors that have opened so recently are not closed for India’s disabled. We already face a struggle as many doubt our disability. Earlier this year, Arushi Singh, a person with a locomotor disability, was asked three times by airport security to stand up from her wheelchair for security protocols. Stand up for only two minutes, the security official told her.

Frustrated and humiliated, she went to the Supreme Court requesting an overhaul of security procedures for Persons with Disabilities at airports. It is exhausting to prove your disability over and over again.

It is vital that lessons are learnt from this recent controversy. Those who have misused or faked disability to enter the services must be prosecuted. Section 91 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act mentions criminal implications for anyone faking a disability to avail of benefits. The time to put that section into force is now. Action must also be taken against medical professionals who have certified these disabilities.

This exercise will cause inconvenience to the genuinely disabled, but their colleagues and the country need to regain faith in them.

Over the slightly longer run, the process of disability certification must be rationalised. Today, we have state-issued disability certificates, a centrally issued Unique Disability ID card and a separate certificate to avail of benefits in the railways. The Union Public Services Commission does its own certification as well. This urgently needs to be standardised.

Nipun Malhotra is a disability rights activist and Co-Founder, Nipman Foundation. He can be followed on X at @nipunmalhotra and on LinkedIn here.