Railways widens scope of concession for passengers with visual impairment

The Indian Railways has widened the scope of concession for passengers with visual disabilities. The rules have been amended in line with World Health Organisation standards, which is expected to benefit a larger number of people having visual impairment.

According to official sources, rail travel concession is admissible to four categories of ‘Persons with Disabilities’, including persons with visual impairment with total absence of sight. The Railway Board has now decided to replace the words “persons with visual impairment with total absence of sight” with total absence of sight or visual acuity less than 3/60 or less than 10/200 by Snellen’s Chart in better eye with best possible corrections or limitation of field of vision subtending an angle of less than 10 degree in better eye.

Validity of certificates

Persons with any one of the three disabilities would be eligible for the concession. Issuance of new Divyangjan ID cards/ renewal of the existing Divyangjan ID cards would be done based on the revised definition of blindness. The Blindness Railway Proforma Certificate would be valid for five years in case of persons up to the age of 25 years, 10 years for those in the age group of 26 and 35 years and remain valid for lifetime for those aged above 35 years, the sources said.

Though the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare modified the definition of blindness under the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment in tune with WHO standards in 2017, the Railways offered concession only to persons with visual impairment with total absence of sight.

Last year, the Central Information Commission (CIC) had directed the Railway Ministry to explain why only persons with 100% visual impairment were entitled to rail travel concession and not others with less but progressive and irreversible visual disability.

RTI Act query

The CIC, while disposing of a petition under the Right to Information Act, 2005, last year had asked railway authorities to explain why travel concession was being granted only to persons with 100% blindness and not to those less than that but with progressive and irreversible conditions. The CIC directed the Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) to furnish a correct, detailed and point-wise reply since the matter related to public interest.

For persons with visual impairment travelling alone or with an escort for any purpose, the Railways provides 75% concession in Second Class, Sleeper Class, First Class, 3-Tier AC, and AC Chair Car, 50% in First AC and Second AC, 25% in Third AC and AC Chair Car of Rajdhani/Shatabdi Express trains and 50% in Monthly Season Ticket and Quarterly Season Ticket. One escort is also eligible for the same element of concession.