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New Delhi: Krishna (uses only her first name) retired as deputy nursing superintendent in 2022 after being a nurse for more than 30 years. She lost both her legs in an accident just as she was graduating in nursing but went on to join GTB Hospital in East Delhi in 1989 using a wheelchair to move around
Meeta*, who has 100 per cent hearing loss in one ear, has been working as a nurse since 2011 in a Delhi govt hospital. She says that she has never faced any problem in carrying out her duties because of her disability but was told that since deafness was not a recognised disability in nursing, she could not avail benefits of the quota for people with disabilities
Lokesh* whose right leg was affected by polio since childhood was certified as having 65 per cent disability. However, he has been working as an assistant nursing superintendent in AIIMS Bhopal
While examples like Krishna, Meeta and Lokesh show that nurses with disabilities can indeed work in hospitals and may, in fact, show more understanding to patients, hurdles to a nursing career have only increased for other disabled aspirants.
Recently, a girl with an amputated arm, whose disability level was 51%, was not allowed to join a BSc Nursing course because the Indian Nursing Council (INC) does not let anyone with a disability level above 50% take admission in nursing courses.
Ranveer Singh Chauhan, president of the Differently Abled Employees Welfare Association, says there are about 200 nurses with various levels and kinds of disabilities working in several govt hospitals in Delhi. “Among them are some who have been certified as having 70 per cent-80 per cent disability. This cut-off of 50 per cent is ridiculous,” says Chauhan, who works as an assistant nursing superintendent in the Central Jail Hospital, Tihar. He does not know the exact percentage of his disability since there was no such rule to determine the exact percentage before 2016. It was enough that a person’s disability was above 40 per cent to avail of the quota for persons with disability.In 2020, INC revised the BSc (Nursing) curriculum for the first time since Independence. Now, its clause 8 states that only those “with a disability of locomotor to the tune of 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the lower extremity” would be eligible for graduation in nursing. This excludes candidates with other disabilities such as muscular dystrophy, dwarfism, acid attack victims, low vision, hearing impairment, speech disability and intellectual disability. Despite so many senior nurses with varying levels of disabilities working in Delhi, none of them were invited to be part of framing the regulations.
Even after Delhi high court directed INC to re-evaluate the criteria, it reiterated that its high-powered committee had considered all issues and upheld the clause, saying that limited functional abilities of nurses would hamper care. “Nursing care activities mandate physical and mental fitness like good vision, hearing and stamina for assisting patients in activities of daily living,” it argued.
Krishna pointed out that she and several others were proof that even with substantial disability one could contribute as a nurse. “I liked being posted in the injection room where hundreds of people had to be given injections which I could do sitting down. I was also in charge of the stores and keeping track of medicines and supplies. I drive a scooty and do all the work in my house on my own including sweeping, mopping and cooking. We deserve to be given a chance to work and earn a living and lead independent lives,” she says.
The National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND) of the US wrote to the INC urging the council to “open the educational doors to students with disabilities” pointing out that nurses with disabilities or chronic health conditions “can provide competent, empathetic, direct patient care, or work in other healthcare industry sectors for corporations and nonprofit organisations”. The NOND letter listed several careers other than clinical nursing, such as becoming disabled nurse educators, consulting on health and wellness, private duty, rehabilitation etc.
Doctors With Disabilities: Agents of Change, which filed the public interest petition in the Delhi high court, says it places “artificial fetters at the stage of admission itself, reducing the chances of persons with disabilities from being suitably employed.” This, when India faces a significant shortfall of nursing staff. It has 1.96 nurses per 1,000 people against the WHO-recommended ratio of three nurses.
Dr Satendra Singh, a disability rights activist and faculty in GTB Hospital Delhi, points out that the disabled find unconventional ways to adapt to. “Why only nurses who are ‘one-legged’ or with ‘both legs disabled’? We need compassionate nurses who understand what it is like to live with chronic illness or disability, not superhuman robots. To clear misconceptions about the capacity of students with disabilities to undergo training in nursing, why doesn’t INC include nurses with disabilities in the committees that frame such regulations?” he says.
