Tamil Nadu govt. to discontinue book binding course for the visually challenged

Decision taken due to difficulties expressed by Director of Public Libraries and Commissioner of Stationery and Printing in employing the candidates

The Tamil Nadu government has decided to discontinue the one-year book binding course being offered since 1982 to the visually challenged school dropouts, aged between 18 and 40 years, with free boarding facilities at the government vocational training institute in Poonamalee.

A Government Order (G.O.) issued by the Department for the Welfare of the Differently Abled Persons states that the course would be discontinued from 2024-25 due to difficulties expressed by Director of Public Libraries, Commissioner of Stationery and Printing and Director for Welfare of the Differently Abled.

According to the Director of Public Libraries, the visually challenged employees had been accommodated in more than two-third of the ‘book binder’ and ‘book binding assistant’ posts in the directorate though the need for such posts had been dwindling over the years due to increasing digitisation and availability of e-books.

The Director, in his letter to the government on July 12, 2024, stated that the visually challenged employees could not be accommodated in any other post and therefore, it would be better to recruit less number of physically challenged people to the posts of book binder and book binding assistant in future.

COMMISSIONER OF STATIONERY

Similarly, the Commissioner of Stationery and Printing, in a letter to the government on July 15, 2024, stated that 126 out of the 368 book binders employed in the department were visually challenged. The strength of the physically challenged employees was much more than the statutory requirement of four per cent.

Further, listing out reasons for why the visually challenged book binders need not be employed in the future, the Commissioner said 90% of the existing visually challenged employees were involved only in cover making and the rest of 10% were performing the functions of folding and bundling.

The Commissioner stated that the visually challenged employees were not in a position to operate the high end machines that had been installed in the recent years for gathering, wire stitching, perfect binding, cutting automatic sewing, automatic folding, collating and so on.

The visually challenged employees could also not be deputed on night shifts for completing important assignments such as printing and binding budget speeches and university question papers. This leads to additional work burden on the other book binders, the Commissioner said.

Claiming that some of the visually challenged employees were unable to achieve even 75% of the expected output, the Commissioner said an association of the visually challenged employees had raised a demand for extending holiday on Saturdays much to the displeasure of other employees.

The Commissioner also said many “talented” youngsters could not be recruited in the stationery and printing department because of recruitment of too many visually challenged candidates. The officer went on to state that it was unfair to expect able bodied men to compensate for the shortcomings of the visually challenged.

Further, the Commissioner complained that the visually challenged employees often created an unhealthy work atmosphere and caused hindrance to the office work by not adhering to the instructions issued by their superiors and by picking petty quarrels with their colleagues.

DIFFERENTLY ABLED WELFARE DIRECTOR

The Director for the Welfare of the Differently Abled wrote to the government on August 4 this year stating that the book binder training programme was intended at providing self employment but the visually challenged candidates ended up demanding government jobs after completing the course.

Stating that it would be impossible to provide government jobs to all the visually challenged candidates who undergo the one-year course at Poonamalee, the Director said that there was also no possibility of getting them employed even in the private sector or in any other stream due to advancement of technology.

The Director stated that all these problems were discussed in a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary on two different occasions and finally it was decided to create a separate vertical for the physically challenged in the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation.

A decision was also taken in the meetings to involve industry bodies such as CII, NASSCOM and ASSOCHAM for providing skill based training to the physically challenged as per the present day requirements of the industries, the Director said.

Pointing out that the strength of the physically challenged book binders in the Public Libraries Department and the Stationery and Printing Department was 75% and 34% respectively, the Director said employing the physically challenged candidates beyond the statutory requirement of 4% would lead to depriving the able bodied people of their employment opportunities.

After considering the practical difficulties expressed by all the three officials and also taking into account the alternative programmes to be offered to the physically challenged through Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation, the government decided to discontinue the book binding training programme from 2024-25, the G.O. issued by Differently Abled Welfare Secretary Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan read.

Published - October 10, 2024 07:24 pm IST