2014 UPSC topper says ‘inclusive schools’ can address bullying faced by the disabled

New Delhi, July 16

IAS officer and deputy commissioner in the NDMC Ira Singhal has alleged that she faced harassment on social media for being differently-abled, even as the bureaucrat asserted she won’t be cowed down by cyber-bullying.

The 2014 UPSC topper shared her experience in a Facebook post and also posted screenshots from her Instagram account, pointing to a troll who tried to harass her by using derogatory language.

“For anyone who thinks people with disabilities don’t have to face anything, as the world is nice and kind — just sharing someone’s comments from my Instagram account,” she wrote on Facebook on July 14.

“A face of cyber-bullying. Unfortunately someone who cannot be bullied is being attempted to be bullied. And, this is probably a person (referring to the troll) who wants to be a civil servant. This is why we need inclusive schools and this is why we need our education system to focus on producing better human beings more than anything else,” she said in her post.

Singhal, who is the deputy commissioner of the Keshawpuram Zone of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), has received a lot of support from people online after she shared the post.

“Thanks everyone for your kind words. A lot of people are asking that I get him punished. There are a few things to that - 1. Getting punished doesnt change your mentality. He will not suddenly become a great person. All that will happen is that our anger gets satisfied. What really needs to be done, is to help people change their mentality and attitude towards disabilities and abilities. 2. We think what he said is wrong,” she posted.

According to the content seen in the screenshots, the troll had used a derogatory term to describe her disability.

“If we think so because we are talking about the fact that he is trying to abuse someone without cause then yes he is wrong. But if we think he is wrong because that word is bad, then we need to make that word become ok. Let us realise that being disabled — andha, behra, kubda, etc are not bad things.

“These words are bad if we think being that way is bad. So let us be clear that words are bad if we think being like this is bad. But oh yes, attempting cyber-bullying is bad and must not be tolerated. Unfortunately he picked someone who cannot be bullied,” Singhal wrote on Facebook. — PTI