The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Barriers for disabled-friendly world remain city pulse

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Monday, Dec 01, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Barriers for disabled-friendly world remain city pulse

Ramya Kannan

It is time again to remember that promises made to persons with disability are unfulfilled

— Photo: R.RAGU

Long way to go: For persons with physical disability access to public places remains elusive.

CHENNAI: Year after year, about this time – World Disability Day (December 3) – the same issue comes up: Chennai has been unable to evolve into a city without barriers for persons with disability.

Every year, interest groups raise the issue, repeatedly, more vociferously during World Disability Day programmes in December. Every year, unfailingly, placatory noises are made, promises made about rendering the city disabled-friendly. Every year, after the Disability Day is over, the promises are forgotten again, unfailingly.

“We are not even asking for anything that is outside the law. The law, the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, guarantees barrier-free access for persons with disabilities,” says TAP Varadakutty, Tamil Nadu Physically Handicapped Persons Association.

His belief is that there is a misconception about what constitutes “public places.” All places where the members of the public visit must be covered under the definition “public places,” according to him. This includes access to restaurants, malls, hotels, banks, railway stations, schools, universities, colleges, government offices and road spaces.

Very few public places are disabled-friendly in Chennai. “Imagine what the position would be in the other parts of the State,” says Tamil Nadu Disabled Persons Welfare Board Member, S. Namburajan.

The Secretariat at Fort St. George is itself not friendly for persons with disability, he points out. “Any person with disability who wants to meet a Minister or an official who uses a wheelchair finds steps to negotiate. Some of them have to suffer the indignity of crawling,” he added.

‘Efforts made’

Social Welfare Minister Geetha Jeevan, however, says efforts have been made to provide ramps wherever possibleHowever, in some areas, the construction of ramps has been delayed because of the obvious disruption it would cause to flow of traffic and others. The PWD has been given the task of examining these challenges and overcoming them, she said.

As for the office of the Commissioner for the Welfare of the Disabled, the fact that it is situated on the first floor has been a strong point of contention for persons with disability. P. Veeramani, former Welfare Board member said, “The present Commissioner tells us that she will come down and see us if we want to meet her. But that is not the point of ensuring access. Why not shift it to the ground floor?” Implementation should begin at least at home, in this case, the office for the redressal of grievances of the disabled, is his argument.

R.Thangam, Welfare Board member, says work is going on in terms of providing ramps for the District Disability Rehabilitation Offices, after many years of petitioning.

Through his network, the Tamil Nadu Physically Handicapped Graduates and Physically Handicapped Welfare Association, Mr. Thangam, who himself has an orthopaedic handicap, has been visiting these offices and recommending changes where ever necessary.

As a first step, after nine years, the office of the DDRO, in the DMS campus in Chennai is all set to get ramps.

Access audits

A few years ago, politicians promised that all government offices would be made disabled-friendly, including the Secretariat.

There are no signs of that as yet. Several organisations have commissioned Access Audits periodically in the city, to see if the metro is “disabled-friendly” and have come up with far from satisfactory results every time – at schools, polling booths, banks, malls, reservation counters, buses and trains.

However, in the “private” sector, there has been some effect, thanks in no small measure to organisations such as Shakti Foundation and Vidya Sagar, who have been campaigning for access for the disabled. Hotels in the city, some malls and clubs have conceded the demand, swayed by persuasion and the intensity of the campaigners.

Madras University, after promising last year, has gone on to put up ramps in the main building and make all new buildings disabled-friendly.

All of these change makers, like the motto of Ability Foundation goes, are in the end “dreamers of a better world. A world without barriers. A world where being the disabled do not automatically equate with being disadvantaged…”

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