Friday, February 19, 2010

Indian man becomes first visually impaired person there to receive Ph.D. in law

From Express Buzz in India:

Dasarath, a man from Karnataka, fought all the odds to become the first visually-challenged person in India to have done a PhD in Law.

Dasarath, who is visually challenged since birth, was disappointed when he could not join an engineering course although he had obtained a seat.

But his passion and perseverance to pursue higher studies made him take up a career in teaching by completing Master of Law (LLM).

Belonging to Raichur, one of the most backward districts in the state, Dasarath is also the only graduate from his family.
“Due to my problem, I could not take engineering as practicals in laboratory would be difficult.

I was also interested in law and wanted to take up teaching,’’ he added. Dasarath is not practicing. Dasarath’s visibility does not exceed 10 metres. “Beyond that, everything is a blur,’’ he said.

Dasarath pursued PhD at Indian Law Institute (ILI), a deemed university. His thesis was on ‘Human Rights and Labour Laws for persons with disabilities.’ Now, he works at the Bangalore University Law College and delivers lectures with the help of his wife and students. He urges the visually-challenged to be educated so that they can stand on their feet. He was recently conferred the PhD by ILI.