Appearing for JEE under the PwD category

A total of five candidates under the persons with disability (PwD) category achieved above 99 percentile in JEE Main (February) 2021. Vishwadev from Haryana emerged as the topper in the PwD category with 99.94 percentile followed by Arnav Jaideep Kalgutkar with a score of 99.90.

Arnav suffers from high-functioning autism, which is also known as Asperger syndrome. “From sensory to linguistic issues, I face multiple challenges daily. The syndrome does not allow me to gather my thoughts quickly like other students, and I often take more time than usual for the same. Visual perception and visual-motor dysfunction also create problems for me. When everything went online during the coronavirus pandemic, I found it difficult to cope with the digital learning format,” says the 17-year-old Pune boy.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has special provisions for PwD category candidates that include extra time to complete the exam and the facility to use a scribe. The total number of PwD candidates who appeared for JEE Main (February) 2021 has not been revealed by the agency.

Sadhana Parashar, senior director, NTA, told Education Times, “We are following all the necessary measures prescribed by the government under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016. We provided ample time for the candidates to get their scribes this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.”

Arnav, who aspires to enter the field of space engineering, did use an extra hour to complete his exam. While the most common choice among students is to pursue computer science engineering, he wants to learn about building space satellites and rockets through mechanical engineering.

“I will not appear again for the exam as I am happy with my score. My focus is now to do well in JEE Advanced and join IIT Bombay. After joining my course, I will try to work on as many practical projects as possible. But, I am a bit worried about staying in the hostel due to my sensory issues. As a drawback due to the syndrome, I can eat foods items of a particular texture with no hard flavours,” says Arnav, who studies at Suryadatta National School in Pune.

He credits his psychologist mother, Anuprita Kalgutkar, for his achievement as it was because of her that Arnav’s autism was diagnosed at an early stage and timely interventions were possible.

Lovesh Kumar Gupta, who topped JEE Advanced in 2017 under the PwD category, says that there is a need to have inclusive provisions to encourage more PwD candidates to appear for the exam as most seats under the quota remain vacant at the end of the admission season. The reservation for PwD candidates is horizontal and the vacant seats are often de-reserved to the respective categories. For instance, unfilled SC-PwD seats will convert to the SC category seats and so on.

“I have weakened left body and that limits my ability to do many things like my peers. I am pursuing BTech in computer science engineering at IIT Bombay, but I can only type with one hand. Less than 3000 PwD candidates took JEE Main (January) 2020. Consequently, the PwD quota seats in most colleges do not get filled up. We need to change society’s mindset to encourage more students to follow their dreams, even while facing a disability,” says Lovesh, who believes that PwD candidates should prepare as per their comfort and find solutions to their restraints.