According to the Persons with Disability Act, 1995, all the government and government-aided schools should have at least 3 per cent seats reserved for children with disability.

An organisation, Shruti Disability Rights Centre, along with CRY (Child Rights and You), conducted a survey across 65 schools in Kolkata. The study shows that students with disability comprise only 0.16 per cent of government school students while private schools have 0.31 per cent disabled students.

Sampa Sengupta, the director of Shruti Disability Rights Centre, said that more than the figures what is alarming is that many schools do not have a column in their admission form for disabled students.

Proma Basu Roy, a volunteer with CRY who was involved in the survey, said that many people don't even know that children with disability have the right of admission in schools.

"There have been instances galore. A visually impaired boy who passed Class X examination with more than 80 per cent marks sought admission in a well-known school. He was rejected in the interview round when the institution realised that he was blind," said Roy.

None of the 65 schools had a ramp or any infrastructure facilities to help students with disability.

Uma Mukherjee, Commissioner (Disabilities), government of West Bengal accepted that the Act requires a school to admit at least 3 per cent disabled candidates.

When asked whas the department doing to ensure that students with disability were admitted in schools, she said, "If we receive complaints only then we can do something". How many complaints has the department received so far, the commissioner did not answer.