Govt's big leap for differently-abled population

By roping in business houses under corporate social responsibility (CSR) and also pooling in about `385 crore from its own kitty, the Government plans to make over 1,000 Government buildings, 3,000 Government-run websites and 50 per cent of all international airports across the country accessible to the entire disabled population by the end of next year.

According to official estimates, by 2020, India will be home to close to seven crore people with disabilities.In a nation-wide campaign billed Accessible India or Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, which is to be launched later this year, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has drawn up a strategic plan for making India accessible to all in several phases. 

“We have divided our entire campaign into three verticals. First, the built-up environment, which includes schools, colleges, Government offices, secondly, the transport system-airports, railways and bus stops and thirdly, the information and communications, which includes websites, and television,” said a senior official from the Department of Disability Affairs, under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

“Universal accessibility is critical for enabling persons with disabilities for equal opportunities. The Government wants to provide them with an all-inclusive environment where they can live independently,” he said.The Government has formed a steering committee and programme monitoring unit with representations from Central and State Departments, accessibility professionals and experts for implementation of the campaign by combination of institutional co-ordination, enforcement mechanisms and awareness of the PwD Act.

“We have written to States to provide us with a list of important public buildings, which are used by the common man. Simultaneously, we have also floated tenders to invite proposals from reputed and experienced NGOs to carry out accessibility audits of the public buildings,” said a senior official.

“We have also shot of letters to Ministries of Tourism, Home, and Health to get tourist locations, police stations and hospitals accessible to the disabled populations,” he said.The Government is also planning to launch two disability-linked mobile apps and a web portal by this November this year.The official said that the first web portal cum app, which is scheduled to be launched by September, will be an interactive platform to allow people to send us suggestions, information, pictures of places which are inaccessible and can be converted. The Government will have a provision to interact with the users and also track their complaints. The second app, which will work like an aggregator, will compile information on places and will be a handy guide for the disabled populations to locate and map accessible places, restaurants, hotels, schools, colleges, museums etc, within their vicinity or beyond.