Faculty Co-ordinator: Dr. Sanjay Jain
The college has constituted an expert committee involving faculty members, experts in the field and differently-abled persons themselves to assess the functioning of this Cell. The committee provides suggestions from time to time for making the Cell more effective. College has nominated Dr. Sanjay Jain as the faculty co-ordinator of this Cell, he is an Associate Professor and being himself visually challenged is able to provide inputs for efficient running of this Cell based on his real lived experiences.
Overview of the Activities of the Cell
This year the cell began its activities by organising its meeting by organising meeting of differently abled students. We have initiated a ‘reader-on-demand’ scheme for visually challenged students by appointing able-bodied students as their readers under Earn and Learn programme of the Student Welfare Department of the College under the auspices of the Savitribai Phule Pune University. Other facilities include installation of Braille printer and availability of computers with screen reading software in the computer lab of the college. We also provide assistance to the students to avail scholarships and other benefits provided by the State and Central Government.
One day career counselling cum motivation workshop
The Cell, in collaboration with the Student Welfare Department, ILS Law College and the Savitribai Phule Pune University organised the event on 28 January 2015 to celebrate the Braille Day. The College was bestowed with five outstanding visually challenged achievers namely, Ms. Sakina Bedi,Mr. Mohammed Tausif Iqbal, Mr. Aditya Garg, Dr.DivyaBijur, Ms. KalyaniChitta and Dr. Sanjay Jain. The programme was inaugurated byPrincipal Smt. Vaijayanti Joshi, followed by the presentation by Dr. Sanjay Jain, on the various schemes and Scholarships provided by UGC, Central Govt. and State Govt. available for students with visual impairment. Faculty members and students of ILS Law College and 100 visually impaired students across Pune city participated in the event. The speakers interacted with the audience. Ms. Sakina Bedi, Mr. Tausif and Mr. Aditya Garg spoke on ‘personality development and positive attitude, Dr. DivyaBijur gave a talk on ‘career opportunities in the field of physiotherapy’ and Ms. KalyaniChitta made a presentation on ‘career opportunities in the field of economics’. A group of students performed a play written and directed by Master Sanket Jain (II LL.B.). Ms. TanviDabir (II BA LLB) presented two melodious songs. Student Rahul Mankar (IV BA LLB) enlightened the audience about the life and work of Louis Braille.
National Youth Fest cum Legal Orientation programme for Differently-abled Students with Special Focus on Students with Visual Impairment
The Savitribai Phule Pune University in collaboration with ILS Law College, Pune organized a ‘National Youth Fest cum Legal Orientation Program for Differently-abled Students with Special Focus on Students with Visual Impairment’ on 28 February 2015 and 1 March 2015. Bal KalyanSanstha, Pune was the Hospitality partner for the event and it provided unconditional support for the success of the event.
The idea behind this fest was to provide, differently-abled students, exposure to the relevant knowledge of the law, career counseling and personality development tips. This was the maiden event of its kind undertaken by any institution. More than 150 differently-abled students from various universities and colleges participated in this event.
Objectives of the program:
- To orient the students with laws, international conventions and various schemes and programs undertaken by Government of India and various States’ UGC and Universities for their empowerment.
- To provide guidance to them to opt for various careers.
- To encourage them to raise issues faced by them in their day to day life
- To address to educational challenges faced by them in universities and colleges
- To provide them tips for personality development
- To encourage them to participate in sports and other cultural programs organized during this event.
During the inaugural ceremony in his presiding speech, The Honorable Vice Chancellor of the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Prof. (Dr.) W. N. Gade congratulated the Principal- Ms. Vaijayanti Joshi, Dr.SanjaykumarDalvi, the Director of Board of Student Welfare, Faculty Co-ordinators- Dr. Sanjay Jain, Mr. DnyaneshwarKendre, Ms. KashmiraLonkar and the students of ILS Law College, Pune for organizing this unique event. He said that he has attended many conferences but has not witnessed any such programme for a long time. According to him, such kind of events should be organized at regular intervals. While expressing his ideas on disability he said ‘Nobody is disabled by Birth’. To illustrate the same, he highlighted the achievements of Prof.Devkar, HoD, Department of Pali in the SPPU, who himself is visually impaired.
Mr. Niranjan Pandya, first visually impaired Padma Shri awardee, appreciated the SPPU and the college, and particularly praised the Principal for walking an extra mile in the field of disability empowerment. Mr. SanjaykumarDalvi while proposing the vote of thanks assured that the University will organize such programmes regularly. Principal Joshi thanked the SPPU and other donors and the Bal KalyanSanstha for their generous and unconditional support for this event and praised the organizing committee of faculty and the students. The same was followed by a lovely dance performance by the students of Kothrud Blind School.
The theme of the first session was Legal Orientation of the participants about laws pertaining to disabilities. It was chaired by Ms. Vaijayanti Joshi, Principal, ILS Law College, Pune. Dr.Shirish Deshpande, Mr. Rajesh Asudani, Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Dr. Sanjay Jain, and Thulasi K. Raj made presentations during this session.
The second session was relating to the orientation about various programs and schemes run by the Universities and UGC for the differently-abled. It was chaired by Dr.SanjaykumarDalvi, Director of Board of Student Welfare, Savitribai Phule Pune University. Mr. DipendraManocha, Mr. MadhukarKatawate, Mr. Narendra Kumar B. Phule and Mr. DhanjayBholemade presentations during this session.
The third session mainly focused on the initiatives taken by the NGOs for the promotion of higher education of differently-abled students. Ms. Sakina Bedi was the chairperson for this session in which Dr.Pratap Singh Bisht, Mr. LaxmanKhapekar, Mr. TarakLuhar, Ms. Neha Pavaskar and Mr. A.Y. Srinivas gave their presentations.
Dr. Sanjay Jain chaired the last session of the day, which focused on providing Tips for Personality Development and also Motivation talks for the differently-abled. This session included, interviews with visually challenged employees working in PMC by Ms. Sakina Bedi, and presentations by Ms. NidhiGoyal, Dr.RavindraNandedkar, Ms. Vishakha More, Ms. Sakina Bedi, Mr. Manvendra Singh Patwal and Ms. KanchanmalaPande.
The event had many other highlights, one of them being the unique Demo Football Match played by Visually Challenged Students at the ILS Law College Ground, which was refereed by Mr. MukulInamdar and Mr. Aditya Kotbagi. At the end of the sessions on the first day, there was a cultural programme with flute performance of Mr. Ramesh Gulani, Vocal Music Performance by Mr. BhushanToshniwal.
On the next day, Mr. D.P. Kendre chaired the first part of the session of Career Guidance, Counseling and Motivation Workshop, which also included presentations by Mr. Moses Chowdari, Ms. Mandavi Garg, Mr. Nikhil Jain, Mr. Rahul Gambhir and Mr. SundeepBedi on their own varied professional experiences.
The second part of this session was chaired by Ms. KashmiraLonkar which included presentations by Mr. Nagraj More, Ms. KalyaniChitta and Mr. Rahul Bajaj.
The final session of the event was a Round Table Discussion on Higher Education by JNU Research Scholars Mr. AvinashShahi, Yogesh Yadav, Santosh Yadav and NandkumarMaibam.
The Director, Bal KalyanSanstha, Ms. MinettaPatil was also felicitated for her unconditional support in making the event a success by Dr. SanjaykumarDalvi.
During the closing of the program, Dr. Dalvi also felicitated the peer team of the volunteers of Equal Opportunity cum Enabling Cell of ILS Law College for the successful organization of this event. All the participants and the resource persons appreciated the toiling efforts of around 50 volunteers who worked day and night for the success of this program.The peer team for this event was consisted of TapasyaParihar, GayatriDharmadhikari, ManavMutneja, Ankit Miglani, ChaitrikaPatki, Aishwarya Gupta and RishabhPardeshi.
Both these events were generously supported by the Savitribai Phule Pune University with a grant of Rs. 22000/- and Rs. 3,40,000/- respectively.
Future plans
We intend to hold a conference on disability rights jurisprudence in the month of July or August. UGC has provided a grant of Rs. 1, 50,000/- for the same. Apart from continuing the earlier schemes, we would also try to generate research projects on disability rights jurisprudence by involving students.
