Don’t use divyang for disabled people, says visually impaired law school topper Rahul Bajaj

Rahul Bajaj, a blind law student, was awarded 20 awards, including 13 gold medals, at the 105th convocation of the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU).

Bajaj stood first in RTMNU among students from all streams.

Bajaj, who is likely to be India’s first disabled student to be chosen for the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, will now head to Oxford University.

Bajaj is presently working with a top law firm in New Delhi. He has interned under Supreme Court and High Court judges. Bajaj said the awards were a recognition of the effort he had put in over five years at his course.

In the next few months, he will leave for Oxford University. He plans to focus on streams like intellectual property rights and constitutional law. Bajaj gave credit to a software called Screen Reader for the help he got in his studies as it allowed him to hear the words written on a computer screen.

Bajaj said he objected to the use of words like ‘divyang’ for people with disabilities. This is the word coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bajaj said that words like divyang, differently-abled, and specially-abled should not be used as it alienates people with disabilities. He said that disabled people should be treated like equals.

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