GETTING AROUND: For the physically challenged, mobility means a lot. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: Sarathy calls his blue-coloured autorickshaw his legs. For Srividya, "independence" means riding her Kinetic Honda — which comes with two extra wheels.

For the physically challenged, such as Sarathy and Srividya, these vehicles are more than just a means of transport: they are a means of liberation. For R.P. Sarathy, who works with New India Assurance, his vehicle fitted with doors and a customised hand-operated brake is the result of his desire to "upgrade." It took him 15 years of `R&D' to move from a motorised two-wheeler to a tricycle fitted with an Enfield engine and now to his autorickshaw that gives him "good mileage."

"It cost me just Rs. 30 to set up the hand-operated brake. It is more utility at less cost," he says.

He can now take his family around but has to politely say `no' to people trying to flag down his autorickshaw. "Even the beggar woman ignores me and approaches my wife for alms at signals," he says with a smile.

Srividhya M, (30), who works with a private company, feels that those extra wheels on her two-wheeler guarantees independence. "I never used to go out. But once I got a job I wanted a vehicle," she says.

Now that she is the only one in the family with a vehicle, she takes care of shopping and other odd jobs braving the potholes that trigger her back pain. But she still finds it difficult to find parking space for her vehicle.

In 2003-04, the transport department issued 61 new `invalid carriage licences' in the city.

Red tapism

But it has not been a smooth ride: not only do the physically challenged have to cut through reams of red tape to get the `invalid carriage licence,' they also have to contend with the traffic police.

The Motor Vehicle Act is also a hurdle, say Aiswarya Rajyalaxmi, technical advisor to the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, and P. Padmanabhan, who puts together "special powered wheelchairs." Padmanabhan has been driving without a licence for the last two years because the Regional Transport Officer refused to endorse the modifications to his two-wheeler. Dr. Aiswarya, one of the few orthopaedically challenged persons to drive a car, says the RTO has not endorsed the hand-operated accelerator and brake though her vehicle is registered as an `invalid carriage.'

"According to the Motor Vehicles Act, locally done modifications are illegal. I have made several representations to have the modifications approved but to no avail," she says.

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