Twenty-year-old Angat Gupta was born into a lower middle-class family residing in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. He is the only blind child among four siblings. Despite their challenging circumstances, Angat’s father ensured that the boy had access to education from an early age. He was enrolled in a special school for the blind where he was empowered to demand his rights as an equal citizen of the country.
When he wanted to pursue higher education in a mainstream school, he fought a persistent battle with the management who denied him admission on grounds of disability. Later on, Angat pursued his graduation from Delhi University. As he moved to another city, he needed independent access to a bank account for his daily expenses. Having an ATM card could ease his cash withdrawal process but when he applied for one, he was denied on grounds of blindness. Angat presented the bank officials with RBI guidelines that mandate equal access to banking facilities for persons with vision impairment but the bank manager refused to comply.
He then contacted the Eyeway Helpdesk where the counselor guided him to file a complaint with the Banking Ombudsman, against outright discrimination. Angat followed the advice and submitted the necessary documents via email to register his grievance. Course correction took place as a result, and the bank offered him an ATM card.
Unfortunately, Angat is not an isolated case. Eyeway receives several calls from blind and visually impaired people across the country who are discriminated against by banking officials despite stringent guidelines and laws in place.
Team Eyeway
For any information related to living life with blindness, please visit -http://eyeway.org.in/
