Disability News India (DNI)
Disability News India (DNI), is a disability News service dedicated to providing a quality up-to-date information to the Indian Disability. DNI's news section is updated two times a week, though we also add breaking stories as and when they occur.
Disability News India – May Issue
- Inclusive Transportation Can Improve Lives of Disabled People: Aqeel Qureshi
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to surmount disability: Farooque Hossain Kamrul
Inclusive Transportation Can Improve Lives of Disabled People: Aqeel Qureshi
Persons with disabilities and older persons are growing groups and users of Public Transportation. Families with young children are beginning to travel more. Every person with disabilities has a right to live with dignity and grace. He also has the right to move out independently with maximum comfort. India is a land of vast magnitude and socio–economic, religious and cultural diversity. Disability knows no barriers as it concerns the problems and hardships to be faced in an inaccessible environment. And, I believe that Public Transportation for people with disabilities can play a crucial role in integrating the person with disabilities into the mainstream of the society.
The environment for accessible transportation for all (streets, pathways, parking, public transportation and communication services etc.) has a major impact on the quality of life, especially concerning its safety, convenience, maximum comfort and maximum enjoyment. There is not sufficient planning and development of the built environment and Accessible Transportation for all.
Improving Accessible Transportation for persons with disabilities is a necessary element of alleviating poverty in developing countries. Country like India is at the bottom of a continuum of activities, where issues of human rights and access to transportation are still paramount. Access is an issue that plays a vital part in the life of persons with disabilities, who are becoming increasingly scared of going out side and do whatever work he/she has to do. We are afraid of stairs, rickety steps, the high-floored buses, the gap between the platform and train in a railway station. The access to the Public Transportation is still a nightmare to the Indian persons with disabilities.
Persons with disabilities and elders need transportation to get to work, school, daily activities, medical services etc. Public transportation needs to accessible for visually impaired, those who are partially sighted, people with mobility and cognitive impairments, and persons who are deaf or hard of hearing..
Access to transport without making the streets and pathways and waiting areas, and bus stops is difficult. Accessibility will help persons with disabilities also help everyone else. If persons with disabilities can get to a train, bus or ship and easily get on, it's means that other people also have easy to use public transportation.
How Public Transportation can affect the life of people with disabilities?
In India, nearly 50% of people with disabilities have never been to school, while only 5% of children with disabilities regularly attend school. 95% of people with disabilities are illiterate, Employment is very low in India, for instance, the rate of employment of people with disabilities in the top 100 companies is only 0.4%, while the share of women with disabilities in employment is less than 0.3%. Public transportation can affect the quality of life.
In India, the attitude and driving behavior of drivers, as well as overcrowding, are major barriers to their use by people with disabilities. Sidewalks that are unpaved, poorly maintained, or crowded by vendors are common across the cities studied, and limit pedestrian mobility. In India, the road surface prevents some wheelchair users from leaving their home for all but essential trips. Bus drivers in India for instance do not allow sufficient time for people to board and alight in comfort and safety and transport personnel in general are lacking in disability awareness and training to assist people into vehicles.
Lack of access to transport also results in an inability to participate in existing education, training, health or social services, which would otherwise be available. When operated in a highly unsafe manner, public transportation may cause far more than 10-12% of the population to " become disabled " in terms of the ability of older persons, children, many pregnant women, and all those with even the most modest mobility concerns to safely board, ride and alight from buses, railways, and other transport vehicles.
According to The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act of 1995;
Establishments in the transport sector shall, within the limits of their economic capacity and development for the benefit of persons with disabilities, take special measures to under chapter 44:
a: Adapt rail compartments, buses, vessels and aircrafts in such a way as to permit easy access to such persons;
b: Adapt toilets in rail compartments, vessels, aircrafts and waiting rooms in such a way as to permit the wheel chair users to use them conveniently.
Aqeel Qureshi. All rights reserved with the author.
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