Nine years after the Centre flagged off the Accessible India Campaign, the differently-abled in Guwahati remain where they were: Nowhere near the campaign’s goal of ease of living for them
The vision of Accessible India Campaign was to create a barrier-free environment for independent, safe and dignified living for persons with disabilities (PwDs). Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) was a nationwide campaign for achieving universal accessibility for PwDs and was launched on December 3, 2015. Ironically, the campaign is not much of a success in Guwahati even nine years after it was rolled out.
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A source in the Composite Regional Centre (CRC), Guwahati, a body under the Union ministry of social justice which works for the welfare of persons with disabilities, talking to GPlus said, “Under the campaign there are three parts - built environment accessibility, transportation system accessibility, and information and communication eco-system accessibility.”
According to the built environment accessibility part of the campaign, measures are to be undertaken by authorities to eliminate obstacles and barriers to indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, medical facilities, and workplaces. Further, these would include all public spaces such as roads, footpaths, parks and gardens etc.
Transportation is a vital component for independent living, and like others, PwDs rely on it to move from one place to another. The term transportation covers a number of areas including air travel, buses, taxis, and trains under the campaign.
People use information in many forms to make decisions about their daily lives. This can range from actions such as being able to read price tags, to physically enter a hall, to participate in an event, to read a pamphlet with healthcare information, to understand a train timetable, or to view web pages. No longer should societal barriers of infrastructure, and inaccessible formats stand in the way of obtaining and utilising information in daily life, according to the campaign, said the source.
The source said that under all these parts the authorities were supposed to conduct many exercises to make the city accessible. Did it happen?
Disability rights activist Arman Ali talking to GPlus said, “Accessible India Campaign is a failure in Guwahati as nothing much has been done.”
According to the campaign, it was mandatory to conduct accessibility audit of at least 25-50 most important government buildings and converting them into fully accessible buildings in selected cities by June 2022. The campaign also mandated converting 50 per cent of all the government buildings of National Capital and all the state capitals into fully accessible buildings by June 2022.
Ali said that an audit was conducted in Guwahati which identified 87 buildings. “Out of 87 buildings in one or two buildings ramps were made, other buildings are still not accessible”, he said adding that the old district commissioner office in Kachari was one of the identified buildings, but it is demolished now.
“Before constructing any new establishment, may it be foot overbridge, park or any other public amenity, disabled accessibility is never thought of,” said Ali.
Under transportation system accessibility it was mandated to ensure that 25 per cent of government-owned public transport carriers in the country are converted into fully accessible carriers by June 2022.
A source in the district transport office talking to GPlus on condition of anonymity said, “25 per cent of public transport in Guwahati has not happened,” adding that transport department is trying to make all transportation accessible to differently-abled, but it will take time.
Under the part information and communication eco-system accessibility, the campaign targeted conversion of public documents; conducting accessibility audit of 50 per cent of all government (both central and state governments) websites and converting them into fully accessible websites by June 2022; ensuring at least 50 per cent of all public documents issued by the central government and the state governments meet accessibility standards; training and developing 200 additional sign language interpreters, said the CRC source. Developing and adoption of national standards on captioning and sign-language interpretation in consultation with national media authorities by June 2022, and ensuring that 25 per cent of all public television programmes aired by government channels meet differently-abled criteria standards by June 2022.
According to the 2011 census, Guwahati had a populatin of 5,222 of hearing impaired, out of which 2,863 were male and 2,359 were female. There were 1,531 verbally challenged people in Guwahati. Both the numbers have grown during the last 13 years.
To provide proper education and platform for future security, the social justice department needs to provide amenities to these differently-abled people. Asked what is the population now of the hearing impaired and verbally challenged people in Guwahati, a source in the social justice department said, “We only have records of people who acquire disability certificates from our department.” So there is no initiative taken by social justice department to conduct any survey/audit and find the exact numbers of differently-abled people.
According to the data received from the directorate of social justice, as of September 2023, there were 670 hearing impaired people in Guwahati as only 670 persons have applied and availed disability certificates.
Not only the deaf and dumb should learn sign language but it should be mandatory for all. A source in the education department talking to G Plus said that the department is mulling to introduce sign language in early classes for all. The department is working on it.
Nothing has been done to improve information system for the disabled yet and the city lacks sign language for differently-abled having hearing and visual issues, said the source in the social justice department.
The source further said that after the campaign started in 2015, in the first phase the Centre was funding and accordingly surveys to identify public buildings were conducted and few works here and there was done.
“After the state government was bestowed with the responsibility, nothing much has happened”, said the source adding that the state always claims that there is fund crisis.
The source said that initially the Centre provided a fund of Rs. 5 crore and it was accordingly used, but later the responsibility was bestowed on the state government, and thereafter nothing has happened.
In cities like Pune, there are concepts of smart footpaths for all especially emphasising the requirements of the elderly and the disabled. Talking about Guwahati, none of the footpaths is 100 per cent elderly or disabled-friendly and many residents feel that the footpaths are neither normal nor pedestrian-friendly. A city-based architect and member of the Association of Architects, Assam (AAA), Ranel Das talking to G Plus said, “It is worrisome that it is very difficult to walk on the footpaths in Guwahati.” He said it is not only for the disabled or elderly, but even normal people face difficulty walking on the footpaths. He wondered if the city which was declared as an upcoming smart city has any plans for making the footpaths friendly for all.
Similarly there are various issues regarding the differently-abled and it needs to be said that Accessible India Campaign looks like a failure in Guwahati.
