This is in response to Bachi Karkaria’s editorial - ‘Living
with Astro-cities’ where she says, ‘Give them this day their daily bribes
and forgive them their pothole’. It appeared in the editorial page of Times of
India on the 25th of July. I
found this line intriguing, shocking and disturbing
This
sentence made me think of my own predicament in Mumbai. The potholes in Mumbai
impede citizens walking on the roads. Those with legs can somehow manoeuvre and
find their way to safety. Can you imagine what happens to people on
wheelchairs, those with injuries and those with crutches? Such people become
prisoners in their own homes.
Millions
of disabled people are homebound because of a lack of toilets and lack of
accessible roads.
Being a
disabled citizen of the city of Mumbai London London
The
other day I was talking to a friend from Germany India
My
mother was interviewing a British disabled MP at the House of Commons last
month regarding how accessible the toilets were in the country. She told us
that despite many of these buildings being heritage structures that do not
permit too many changes it was still intelligently modified to suit the needs
of people with disability.
In May I
fell off an escalator at Westside store in Kala Ghoda because the section of
woman’s wear was not accessible for someone like me on a wheelchair. I hurt
myself badly and I was lucky that it wasn’t worse. This incident led to a giant
accessibility campaign to make Mumbai more disabled friendly.
A meeting was held at Azad Maidan where Celebrities
such as Nagesh Kukonoor and Dia Mirza among many others were present. Kukunoor said, “In India, 15 per cent of the population is
differently-abled. Every staging like this is a rock in its own bucket. If you
do not have a show of strength no one will listen to you.”
Dia said, “Movies can be used as a medium to create
awareness amongst the masses but to make a change, certainly something more has
to be done. The civic authorities are the ones who can bring in the change.
Along with major issues that we are talking about here, there are certain smaller
issues that can be resolved like pavements and public toilets. The municipal
corporation can make these changes which would initiate a change.”
The
Adapt Right Group that initiated this campaign, is waiting to see whether the
prominent shops, schools, museums, cinema halls, colleges and other public
buildings are made wheelchair friendly. However, it has been three months since
the campaign but not much has been done by the administration besides agreeing
to our demands whenever we approached them. Sadly, this lip-service is the
reason why even after 66 years of Indian independence, the disabled people in
this country are not yet free.
At
present because of lack of Access, disabled people are imprisoned in their own
homes. There is no room for a wheelchair. If we go out on our own, negative
comments are hurled at us as if we don’t belong here, as if we are aliens, so
we disabled people are forced to stay at home. Outings are not for us! Only
for Normal people!
Yes we
want to be at par with the West, but to do that we need to provide for all our
citizens-even disabled members.
The lack
of awareness is pathetic and sensitisation about disabled people is urgently
needed. The government is hardly aware of our needs and rights as citizens.
The government needs to see us to count us citizens and to give us
accessibility. But how can we be visible if we cannot have access. It is a perfect
catch 22
