NGOs in Delhi are helping differently-abled people to take a tour of the heritage sites in the city. Arjita Mishra talks to some of them and finds out that initiatives like these help to narrow down the discrimination
It is not everyday when you get to hear that a person has come forward to help differently-abled people to visit the heritage sites in the city. But Neha Arora, took a different route and decided to help differently-abled people for the heritage walk in the city to encourage and motivate them. “I want them to enjoy each and everything that a normal person does,” said Neha, founder of Planet abled NGO. The NGO was set-up in beginning of this year and this was the first heritage walk from the NGO.
She told us that her parents are also disabled and sometimes when they travel, they face a lot of difficulties. “After seeing the problems they faced, I decided that I will do something for differently-abled people. And then I started this NGO,” said the 31-year-old.
The organisation has 16 volunteers who are trained in sign language and wheelchair assisting. The organiser also told us that she will be taking differently abled people to the Garden Festival 2016 as well.
Anita Pandey, who is principal at an NGO called Tamanna, also works for students with disabilities, shared, “It is necessary for differently-abled people to take them out for a tour or a picnic so that they may not feel discriminated.” She added, “We organise several trips from time to time for the children in our school.”
She also told us that during the trips, they feel that they have a responsibility to make sure that nothing happens to the kids. “We send a large number of volunteers with the children to guide and help them,” said Pandey.
Another NGO, Sadhana, who works with the differently-abled children till the age of of 12 years. “We have divided children in two groups — one group is from zero to five-years-old and the second group of children is between 6 to 12. This makes our work easier.” She told us that to treat differently abled people equally, it is necessary to organise these kind of tours.
Few months back, National Museum also displayed 22 replicas of selected museum objects which represent 5,000 years of Indian art in a newly made gallery, Anubhav: A Tactile Experience. This gallery is dedicated towards visually impaired people.
“The idea behind this was to make them (visually impaired people) aware about the rich culture and history through the installations at the museum,” said Vijay Mathur, curator of lecturing and education at the museum.
It took a year for the curators to prepare the gallery as they had to make dummies of the original sculpture or paintings. “We had made dummies so that blind people can touch it as they can’t see. Originals are not kept because it will get destroyed by the touch of the people,” said Mathur.
To make the visit more convenient, the organisers have made a separate entrance so that visually impaired people may not get troubled.