In an insensitive act, police personnel posted at the famed Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai allegedly ridiculed two physically challenged devotees and prevented them from entering the temple as one of them refused to remove his calipers.
The incident, which happened on Sunday last, has come in for sharp criticism from activists crusading for the basic rights of the disabled.
According to Damodaran, an orthopaedically challenged person hailing from Tiruvallur, the policemen subjected him to humiliation when he explained that removing the caliper would restrict his mobility. “If you can’t remove your calipers, why can’t you worship the Goddess from outside the temple,” a policeman on duty allegedly asked Damodaran.
A wheelchair bound man Livingston, who had accompanied Damodaran along with two other physically challenged persons Chandran and Mani, too was stopped at the flag mast (Dwasthambam) of the temple. “I tried explained that they should consider calipers as a part of a disabled person’s body. I pointed out that without this I would be forced to crawl inside the temple. But they just ignored it,” lamented Damodaran.
“They kept harassing us saying that God will punish us if we went inside the temple with calipers,” said Livingston.
The four who were members of the Vasantham Federation for Differently Abled in Tiruvallur had come to Madurai to attend the general body meeting of the Tamil Nadu Differently Abled Federation (TNDAF) Humiliated by the discrimination, they immediately contacted T M N Deepak, the vice president of TNDAF and apprised him of the issue.
The latter went to the temple and tried in vain reasoning with the police personnel that carrying calipers would not “pollute” the sanctity of the temple. “The response of the police and a few temple staff made us feel ashamed in front of others,” he said.
Only last month police had refused entry for two differently-abled international sportspersons Gopikannan and Prakash Nadar inside the temple. “After I sought the help of an Assistant Commissioner of Police, I was asked to buy a towel to cover the shoe-like portion of my calipers,” recalled Gopikannan.
“After an hour’s search, we purchased a towel and approached the police. This time, they asked us to cover the entire lower part of the caliper with the towel. When we told them it would make it impossible to walk that way, they forced us to leave the place,” he added.
Deepak rued that the world famous temple did not even have ramp facilities or wheelchairs, which is mandatory as per guidelines issued by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department. “Forcing us to crawl amidst other devotees is discrimination,” he said.
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