Twenty-five-year-old Abbas Jamil was born totally blind to a low income family living in Delhi. Abbas has two sisters who are also blind by birth. His father was burdened with raising four children, with special care for the three visually impaired kids.
 
Fortunately, Abbas was admitted to a special school run by Blind Relief Association in New Delhi. Here he acquired the necessary reading, writing and mobility skills. Encouraged by other visually impaired students and teachers, he was keen on making an independent future for himself.
After finishing his graduation, Abbas enrolled for the special B.Ed. program at Durgabhai Deshmukh College. But his family’s financial struggles continued. He thought of applying for a disability pension in order to meet some of his personal expenses and easing the burden on his father. But despite having a Unique Disability ID and other documents, he failed to receive his monthly pension.
One of his friends suggested him to contact the Eyeway Helpdesk. When the counsellor asked to see all his documents, she realized that the details mentioned on Abbas’ UDID were not matching with his other official documents. There was an error. The counsellor advised him to surrender his UDID and apply again to correct the mistake.
Abbas was directed to the nearest Jan Sewa Kendra and the Eyeway counsellor intervened to seek assistance on his behalf. Once the application was submitted, he went in for a medical certification, following which within a month, Abbas was issued a new UDID online.
He then updated his information with the pension authorities and was successfully able to receive the disability pension in his account.
Often, persons with vision impairment rely on sighted help to file for official documents and end up with errors that cause them sustained inconvenience on a daily basis. There is a need to perhaps simplify the guidelines and the process of application, correction and grievance redressal.  
Team Eyeway