The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : It's rough ride for the disabled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

It's rough ride for the disabled

By Sandhya Soman

CHENNAI, MARCH 24. Three reasons why Sahadevan misses his bus at least twice a week from Saidapet here: People around him are busy, indifferent or late in their reply to his question, "Is 45 B coming?"

This visually-impaired lecturer of Presidency College says his work has been affected.

"If I reach after 9.10 a.m., it means half-a-day's leave."

The city public transport system has missed the bus when it comes to residents with disabilities.

Another visually challenged, rank-holding student of Loyola College, M. Shanmuga Priya (21), does not travel by bus or train. "I love reading but I do not go to the British Council Library or any book fair on my own. My parents are scared because I am a girl." Back in her native place, Tirunelveli, she would have ventured out as someone would tell her when the bus arrived.

S. Ashokumar (24), a Social Work student of Madras Christian College, travels by bus or train on his own despite his visual impediment. "Mostly people help me get into the right bus or the compartment," he says. If no one is around, Ashok uses his cane and hands to get in. It would help if there were signboards in Braille, auditory signals at red lights and announcements of stops aboard buses. "All these will increase our independence. A free bus pass is not enough," says Ashok.

K. Sanath Kumar, a 36-year-old lawyer with cerebral palsy, has to encounter unfriendly behaviour when he travels. His mother, R. Radha, says her son is prone to depression after such instances and that he rarely steps out of the house these days.

The MTC would like to help. Officials say the instructions have to come from the Government.

Organisations working in the field want the Government to implement The Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection Of Rights And Full Participation) Act, 1995. That would take care of most of the basic need — access.

"We did an `access audit' at all railway stations two years ago and found them inaccessible to people with various disabilities," says B. Meenakshi, who is with the disability legislation unit of Vidya Sagar. The Tiruvanmiyur MRTS station with its lifts and ramps fares the best.

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