“Give me accessibility and I will give you productivity”
Abha Khetarpal gives a new slogan on Independence day: Stairs without lifts, books without Braille prints, communication devoid
of sign language…there still pervades a reign of inaccessibility. More than 50
million disabled people in our country till this date, live like slaves..
People with impairments still remain oppressed…Oppressed by negative social
attitudes, oppressed by insensitivities, and oppressed by apathy and what not.
Where is the freedom in actual sense of the term! There hasn’t been much change between pre-independence period and this
postmodern world of 21st century. Some very pertinent questions thus need to be answered…Do people with
disabilities enjoy the same freedom as those who are considered “normal”? Can
people with disabilities make their own choices in spite of having the same
desires, needs and aspirations as the non disabled? Does the society take an
account of all this and is it ready to make satisfactory reasonable adjustments
for them? Yesterday I just went for a drive around in our capital city i.e. Delhi.
And one instance sent shivers in my spine. A blind was man trying to cross the
road. It is not that he wasn’t helped by anyone, as we still have some
sensitivity left in us. The person who came forward to help him did so by
clutching his shirt collar and his shirt’s sleeves. My heart really bled at whole
scene. Are people with disabilities so inferior and insignificant? We are
treated as objects and nothing more. .. Disability is only seen as
something that can only invoke pity or in need of a cure. Nobody looks at
it as a positive asset. Physical and psychological anomalies may affect as persons functioning.
But impairments are turned into handicaps due to barriers of all kinds.
Environment and organizational hurdles prevent a disabled person from getting
equal opportunities in education, employment, housing, transport, leisure and
may other things. Lack of education and employment create a vicious
circle where people with disabilities have to live in abject poverty
particularly in rural areas and in small towns. Although being capable of productive
work, they are regarded as incapable. They are unable to learn any skills which could make them financially
independent apart from contributing in the national income of the
country. The economy loses a great amount of productive capacity along
with creating large number of dependents in an economy which already has meagre
resources to sustain them. There is lack of access. Social, psychological
and structural barriers completely make them immobile. Social barriers include cost, lack of awareness among the general public
and communication. The non disabled don’t realize the fact that most people
experience disability at some point in their lives through illness, accident or
aging. Help to the disabled is offered by the people in either
patronizing or in demeaning ways. Have you have seen bus drivers allowing
sufficient time to a disabled person to alight the bus? Structural barriers include unfriendly vehicle design, pedestrian
environment, infrastructure etc. If a disabled person wants to use the sidewalk,
he might fall because of poor and unpaved ways or they always remain crowded by
the vendors. The road surfaces in our country are so rugged that the wheel
chair user might break the wheels of his chair! Psychological barriers include low self esteem and fear of personal
security while moving out of home alone without any escort. Majority of people with disabilities have not tasted the delicious
flavour of freedom, as the world is beyond their reach. Even the basic desires
to go to school, temples, going out with friends, watching a movie in the
theatre, getting married etc remain out of their periphery. They have to remain
behind four walls. The perpetual denial of their basic rights and ostracism
sometimes starts from family itself. Even the family functions and ceremonies
are arranged at inaccessible places, where the person with disability is
‘’carried like baggage or a bundle’’ absolutely negating his existence as a
human being. These attitudinal barriers make the societal relationships
unequal. Apart from all these the high cost of treatment and expensive assistive
devices and mobility aids cause another kind of obstructions in their lives.
Correctional surgeries are alarmingly expensive and in the wake of some weird
insurance policies people with disabilities are not even given appropriate
facility of health insurance. Unfortunately within the developing world, the provision of facilities
for disabled people is mainly seen as a welfare function of the state and there
is always a crunch of resources with the state. And, ironically in this
politics of vote bank, even polling booths are inaccessible. The need rests on
to find cost effective means and little bit innovation to make the lives the
‘’differently abled’,’ somewhat comfortable along with enabling them to take
part in the process of productive activities in the country. A good urban
project does not cost more if it is willing to include universal design
concepts. The state needs to prioritize about whom it needs to accommodate.
Society needs training at every step to include people with disabilities into
the mainstream. It needs to change its notions and adapt a more broadened
outlook. I was pondering upon the slogan given by Subhah Chandra Bose, a great
freedom fighter, “Give me blood and I will give you freedom”. And now
after 64 years of getting that blessing of freedom from those 100 years of
colonial rule, I think this slogan needs to be reframed, especially by the
people with various forms of impairment. Now it should go like this, “Give me accessibility
and I will give you productivity”. Let this section of the society now remain visible in the agendas and
policies of the policy makers. Let them have a walk towards freedom at least
after 64 years of independence.
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