September 27, 2025 07:26 AM IST First published on: Sep 27, 2025 at 07:26 AM ISTthe imminent closure of Delhi’s Institute for the Blind, one of the country’s oldest blind schools, founded in Lahore in 1939 and relocated to Delhi after Partition, tells a larger story of institutional neglect and bureaucratic abdication. For over seven decades, the school has provided education, accommodation, and community to visually impaired children from economically precarious families from states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Now, the institution, with its 115 students, faces the threat of closure in the absence of a government-issued certificate of recognition, denied due to missing land documents dating back to Partition. While the Directorate of Education has claimed the school failed to act on official notices, the administration alleges a lack of meaningful engagement from authorities, including the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which had previously raised alarms over infrastructural deficiencies and safety lapses, including POCSO-related incidents.What is unfolding in Delhi is not an isolated failure, but a broader pattern of indifference towards the rights and needs of persons with disabilities. The NFHS-5 pegs the percentage of people with some form of disability, including partial or complete blindness, at 4.5 per cent for the period between 2019 and 2021. Despite a slew of progressive legislation and fund allocation — the 2025 Union Budget allocated Rs 1,275 crore for disability welfare — implementation on the ground remains uneven and performative. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 promises inclusion, accessibility, and equal opportunity. In practice, however, resources remain erratically distributed — data show that in 2023-24, 93 per cent of the budget allocation remained unused — and countless schools for the visually impaired operate without formal recognition. The Scheme for Implementation of the PwD Act (SIPDA), which funds accessibility projects, has seen its allocation progressively slashed, despite a 2024 Supreme Court judgment mandating improved access in public spaces.AdvertisementThese shortcomings converge in the local and immediate crisis faced by institutions such as the Institute for the Blind. The Delhi institution’s crisis demands urgent attention — the closure order should be stayed, provisional recognition granted, and land issues resolved without upending the students’ lives. But the response must extend beyond reactive fixes. Disability should be treated as a core governance priority, requiring sustained investment, transparent oversight, enforceable obligations, and institutional accountability. Schools for the visually impaired — including this institution — should be periodically audited for legal compliance, infrastructure, and safety. Inclusion is a constitutional guarantee. Allowing systemic inertia to undermine that promise amounts to an abandonment of some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens.