Kannur: When A.K. Prajil fought the odds of his visual impairment to pursue an education, he held onto a single hope: that one day, he would be a pillar of support for his equally vulnerable siblings. He believed the government employment exchange would open a door for him, however small. But it never did.

Whenever his visually impaired sister, Prameela, softly asks, “Any news about a job?”, tears well up in Prajil’s eyes. He is 39 now, an age when he should have been caring for his aging family, yet he is still left wandering from pillar to post in search of a livelihood. The toll of this lingering helplessness is written all over his face.

Despair hangs heavy over the Anthoorkandi household in Poovathoor, under the Koodali panchayat. Living under its roof are Prajil, his eldest brother, Pradeepan (62), who suffers from a heart condition, and his sister, Prameela (59). Their father, Kumaran, passed away 30 years ago, and their mother, Rohini, died three years ago. Another brother, Praveen, who is also visually challenged, works on a temporary contract at the Dharmashala School for the Blind.

Prajil was born blind. Prameela and Praveen lost their sight when they were in the seventh grade. Refusing to yield to adversity, Prajil passed his Class 10 board exams with high marks from the Kasaragod School for the Blind and completed his higher secondary education at the Kolathara School for the Blind in Kozhikode. Around that time, he registered with the employment exchange. Later, he earned a diploma in psychology from the Speech Foundation Centre in Kochi.

Since then, Prajil has knocked on virtually every door, but prospective employers turn him away, claiming that 100% visual impairment makes it too difficult to hire him.

That was the exact response he received from the Mattannur Employment Exchange: under government rules, candidates with total visual impairment are considered only for teaching positions. Prajil says repeated petitions submitted to the District Collector and the employment officer have fallen on deaf ears.

Today, the family survives on the meager income Pradeepan scrapes together from marketing work, despite his heart ailment, along with their disability pensions. Their dilapidated, decades-old house is crumbling in places, and it lacks even a proper access road.

"The government launches so many schemes to uplift the differently-abled," Prajil says, his voice breaking. "Can’t they show a little compassion to people like us who are completely blind?"