Reservations for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD):
The suitability or otherwise of a post for PwBD has been indicated against each post, under the column “Suitability for Persons with Benchmark Disability” with details of sub disability in Post Parameters Table
[Click Here].
Benchmark Disabilities:- As per The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 (effective from 19th April, 2017),the
Benchmark Disabilities are as under:-
(a) Blindness and low vision;
(b) Deaf and hard of hearing;
(c) Locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy;
(d) Autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness;
(e) Multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d) including deaf-blindness in the posts identified for each disabilities.
Definition of Specified Disabilities as provided in the Schedule of RPwD Act, 2016 is as mentioned below:
Definition of Specified Disabilities:
1. Physical disability:-
A) Locomotor disability (a person’s inability to execute distinctive activities associated with movement of self and objects resulting from affliction of musculoskeletal or nervous system or both), including—
(a)
“Leprosy cured person” means a person who has been cured of leprosy but is suffering from—
(i) loss of sensation in hands or feet as well as loss of sensation and paresis in the eye and eye-lid but with no manifest deformity;
(ii) manifest deformity and paresis but having sufficient mobility in their hands and feet to enable them to engage in normal economic activity;
(iii) extreme physical deformity as well as advanced age which prevents him/ her from undertaking any gainful occupation, and the expression “leprosy cured” shall construed accordingly;
(b)
“cerebral palsy” means a Group of non-progressive neurological condition affecting body movements and muscle coordination, caused by damage to one or more specific areas of the brain, usually occurring before, during or shortly after birth;
(c)
“dwarfism” means a medical or genetic condition resulting in an adult height of 4 feet 10 inches (147 centimeters) or less;
(d)
“muscular dystrophy” means a group of hereditary genetic muscle disease that weakens the muscles that move the human body and persons with multiple dystrophy have incorrect and missing information in their genes, which prevents them from making the proteins they need for healthy muscles. It is characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness, defects in muscle proteins, and the death of muscle cells and tissue;
(e)
“acid attack victims” means a person disfigured due to violent assaults by throwing of acid or similar corrosive substance.
B) Visual impairment—
(a)
“blindness” means a condition where a person has any of the following conditions, after best correction—
(i) total absence of sight; or
(ii) visual acuity less than 3/60 or less than 10/200 (Snellen) in the better eye with best possible correction; or
(iii) limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of less than 10 degree.
(b)
“low-vision” means a condition where a person has any of the following conditions, namely:—
(i) visual acuity not exceeding 6/18 or less than 20/60 upto 3/60 or upto 10/200 (Snellen) in the better eye with best possible corrections; or
(ii) limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of less than 40 degree up to 10 degree.
C) Hearing impairment—
(a)
“deaf’ means persons having 70 DB healing loss in speech frequencies in both ears;
(b)
“hard of hearing” means person having 60 DB to 70 DB hearing loss in speech frequencies in both ears
D)
(1)
“speech and language disability” means a permanent disability arising out of conditions such as laryngectomy or aphasia affecting one or more components of speech and language due to organic or neurological causes.
(2) Intellectual disability, a condition characterized by significant limitation both in intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem solving) and in adaptive behaviour which covers a range of every day, social and practical skills, including—
(a) ”specific learning disabilities” means a heterogeneous group of conditions wherein there is a deficit in processing language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself as a difficulty to comprehend, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations and includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and developmental aphasia;
(b) “autism spectrum disorder” means a neuro-developmental condition typically appearing in the first three years of life that significantly affects a person’s ability to communicate, understand relationships and relate to others, and is frequently associated with unusual or stereotypical rituals or behaviours.
(3) Mental behaviour—
“mental illness” means a substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation or memory that grossly impairs judgment, behaviour, capacity to recognize reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life, but does not include retardation which is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person, specially characterized by sub normality of intelligence.
(4) Disability caused due to—
(a) chronic neurological conditions, such as—
(i) “multiple sclerosis” means an inflammatory, nervous system disease in which the myelin sheaths around the axons of nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and affecting the ability of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to communicate with each other;
(ii) “Parkinson’s disease” means a progressive disease of the nervous system marked by tremor, muscular rigidity, and slow, imprecise movement, chiefly affecting middle-aged and elderly people associated with degeneration of the basal ganglia of the brain and a deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
(b) Blood disorder—
(i) “Haemophilia” means an inheritable disease, usually affecting only male but transmitted by women to their male children, characterized by loss or impairment of the normal clotting ability of blood so that a minor would may result in fatal bleeding;
(ii) “Thalassemia” means a group of inherited disorders characterized by reduced or absent amounts of hemoglobin.
(iii) “Sickle cell disease” means a hemolytic disorder characterized by chronic anemia, painful events, and various complications due to associated tissue and organ damage; “hemolytic” refers to the destruction of the cell membrane of red blood cells resulting in the release of hemoglobin.
(5) Multiple Disabilities (more than one of the above specified disabilities) including deaf, blindness which means a condition in which a person may have combination of hearing and visual impairments causing severe communication, developmental, and educational problems.
(6) Any other category as may be notified by the Central Government.
Degree of Benchmark Disability for reservation and Competent Authority for Issue of Disability Certificate:
Only such persons would be eligible for relaxation in conditions/ reservation in posts who suffer from not less than
40 percent of relevant benchmark disability. Those Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) who have availed the relaxation and/ or reservation and shortlisted for Document Verification have to submit Certificate of Disability issued by the Competent Authority as per the form V, VI and VII of rule 18(1) under chapter 7 of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017 dated 15.06.2017. Refer Annexure V (A) [
Click Here], V (B) [
Click Here] and V(C)[
Click Here] for the revised formats. The existing certificates of disability issued under the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 (since repealed) shall continue to be valid for the period specified therein.
Assistance of Scribe:
Visually Impaired(VI)/ candidates whose writing speed is affected by Cerebral Palsy/ muscular dystrophy/ candidates with Locomotor disability (one arm)/ Intellectual disability (Autism, specific learning disability and mental illness) can avail the assistance of Scribe for writing answers on their behalf. For engaging the scribe, candidates will have to indicate the same while filling ONLINE application form. Engagement of Scribe will be subject to the following conditions:
a. Candidates will have to arrange for the scribe on their own.
b. The scribe so arranged should not himself/ herself be the candidate for this CEN for which the candidate is appearing. Also same scribe should not be engaged for more than one candidate. The scribe and the candidate shall give a declaration to this effect. Any violation, if detected at any stage will render both the candidate & the Scribe disqualified.
c. Candidates opting for scribe will have to provide details of scribe as per Annexure-V(D) [Click Here] at the time of CBT and same shall be signed by both candidate and scribe. Scribe should produce original valid ID proof at CBT center, and paste pass port size photograph on Annexure-V(D).
d. The candidate shall be responsible for any misconduct on the part of the scribe brought by him/ her during the examination.
e. Candidates availing the assistance of a scribe shall be eligible for compensatory time of 20 minutes for every hour of examination.
All one eyed candidates and candidates whose visual degree of disability is less than
40% shall not be considered as Visually Impaired persons and the provision for engaging scribe shall not be applicable to them.
Selected PwBD candidates will be subjected to medical examination by Railway Medical Authorities at the time of appointment and only those conforming to the medical standards as laid down in the Indian Railway Medical Manual and other extant provisions, as the case may be, will be eligible for appointment.
When vacancies are reserved for PwBDs and full panel for PwBDs cannot be made with the minimum qualifying percentage marks of each category, viz., UR, SC, ST, OBC-NCL, a relaxation of up to 2% marks in the minimum qualifying marks prescribed for the community will be allowed.
Special Note:
For all Candidates seeking reservation/ relaxation benefits:
All those candidates seeking reservation/ relaxation benefits available for SC/ ST/ OBC-NCL/ PwBD/ ExSM must ensure that they are entitled to such reservation/ relaxation as per eligibility prescribed in the Rules/ CEN. They should be in possession of all the requisite certificates in the prescribed format in support of their claim as stipulated in the Rules/ CEN.