Are we rejecting Color Blind Civil Services candidates because of an oversight?

Civil Services Examination is conducted in terms of the provisions of Civil Services Examination (CSE) Rules notified by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India. Rule 21 of these rules provide that a candidate must be in good mental and bodily health and free from any physical defect likely to interfere with the discharge of his duties as an officer of the service. A candidate, who after such medical examination as the Central Government or the Appointing Authority, as the case may be, may prescribe, is found not to satisfy these requirements, will not be appointed.  The Central Government constituted Central Standing Medical Boards (CSMB) in the seven designated hospitals in Delhi for conduct of medical examination of candidates in CSE.

Medical examination of these candidates are being conducted in seven designated hospitals in Delhi viz. Safdarjung Hospital, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, Succheta Kriplani Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and BR Ambedkar Hospital.

However, a medical oversight in the medical examination is hampering the careers of civil service candidate with color blindness.  High grade Color Vision is required for 'Technical' posts like IPS, Other Police Services, 1RTS and RPF. Low Grade Colour Vision or in other words Color blindness is acceptable for 'Non-technical' services (rest of the services under CSE).

With respect to color vision, the point number 11(f) on page 18 of the “Appendix III Regulations relating to the physical examination of candidates” (http://persmin.gov.in/ais1/Docs/Appendix-III.pdf ) states:

11(f) Color Vision: Color Vision will be examined with the help of following two techniques:

1. Edrige Green's Lantern technique: Color perception should be graded into higher and lower grade depending upon the size of aperture in the lantern as described in the table below:-

Grade	Higher grade color perception	Lower grade color perception
1	2	3
Distance between the lamp and candidate	16 ft	16 ft
Size of aperture	1.3 mm.	13mm.
Time of exposure	5 seconds	5 seconds

2. Ishihara's Plates.

Earlier, Ishihara's plates were used aloe to test color perception. Now Lantern test is used to grade the color perception. The above table is the cause of controversy. Those who fail 'higher grade color perception' are color blind but subjecting them further to 'lower grade color perception' test further classify candidates into pass/fail which is immaterial as all applicant with color blindness are FIT for Non-Technical posts as per rules.

The table makes no mention of candidates with lower grade of color perception who are unable to identify all the colors when the size of the aperture is 13mm.

If such candidates are found fit in all other respects, it is unfair to declare them “UNFIT FOR ALL POSTS” as is being done at present. Instead they should be declared “UNFIT FOR TECHNICAL” on account of low grade color perception.

As per the medical experts, the table above should be modified as follows so as to remove this injustice to a section of persons with low grade color perception:

1. Edrige Green's Lantern technique: Colour perception should be graded into higher and lower grade as described in the table below:-

Distance between the lamp and candidate	16 ft
Size of aperture	1.3 mm
Time of exposure	5 seconds
Interpretation	Makes no errors: High grade color perception Makes even one error when tested twice after 15 minutes of dark adaptation: Low grade color perception*

*The possibility that persons who fail the lantern test as described above have no color vision is remote since total color blindness is extremely rare:

1. When total color blindness is due to rod monochromism, the vision is poor and there is nystagmus – rendering such a candidate unfit for techical posts. They may, however, be fit for those nontechnical posts where persons with visual disability can be employed.

2. When total color blindness is due to cone monochromism, the vision may be normal and there is no reason to believe that such people cannot hold nontechnical posts.

I wrote to Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities but since 'Color Blindness' is NOT  a disability (less than 40% and otherwise) so they can not do anything. I then wrote to both Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as Secretary, DoPT but there has been no response so far.

I have requested them to urgently intervene in the matter and pass appropriate instructions so that:

A)  All those candidates who are found fit in all other aspects but fail to to identify all the colors (in lower grade of perception) when the size of the aperture is 13mm SHOULD NOT be declared "unfit for all posts". 

B). As color blindness is just an impairment and these candidates are fit otherwise, these should be considered for "Non-technical' posts.

C). All such candidates who have been declared "unfit for all posts" in all the 7 hospitals should be reexamined and placed under "fit for Non- technical" category.

D). An urgent notification should be issued since the medical examinations are currently going on.

I hope our Government take urgent steps so that qualified color blind civil services candidates are not unduly rejected because of an medical oversight.


Impact

'The Hindu' carried the news next day. Here is the link:

Consider color-blind CSE aspirants for non-technical posts (Hindu, 7 June 2015)