Even Delhi railway station is a nightmare...

Vivek Joshi
Disability activist 

INITIALLY, seven types of disabilities were recognised by the governemnt, but their number was extended to 21 in the 2016 disability Act. These include physical disability, mental disability, and physical as well as mental disability, multiple disability, low vision, thalassaemia etc.

The problems being faced by physically disabled persons in their day to day life are many, but not handled sensitively in India. Most of the railway stations in the country are neither accessible nor disabled-friendly. The attitude of bureaucrats enhances their problems sometimes.

One of my experiences highlights this issue. I was declared a national award winner by the Ministry of Social Justice, Government of India, New Delhi. The award was to be presented to me on December 3, 2016. I was directed by secretary/official of the Ministry of Social Justice to reach Delhi by train. I replied to them that I could not board the train due to inaccessibility at the railway station, train compartment etc. Seeking permission to go there by taxi/own car, I requested them to pay me the train fare, but my request was turned down. So, I had to go by train. Six persons, with great difficulty, got me seated in the train at the Jalandhar station. When I was to get down in New Delhi, the help of four coolies and two friends was needed to take me out of the compartment. My wheelchair had to be carried for about 500 m from platform no 16 to platform no 1 to reach the ramp. It took about one hour to come out as everything was inaccessible at the Delhi station. 

This is the state of affairs at all railway stations. So, if we wish that disabled persons should use trains, big railway stations should be made disabled-friendly. There are some more difficulties for boarding trains. They include:

1 A person on a wheelchair cannot board the train because the width of the compartment gate is less than the width of the wheelchair.

2 The compartment gate is at a level higher than the platform and the wheelchair cannot enter it without any ramp.

3 Even if a disabled person is successful in boarding or alighting the train somehow, he will face difficulty in changing platforms as at most of the railway stations, there is no facility for moving from one platform to another. 

4 Then there are problems for railway reservation. You can't reserve a seat online for a disabled person in this region because you must have a card, duly prepared by divisional office, Ferozpur. You have to visit the Ferozpur divisional railway office time and again to get the formalities completed for getting the card prepared. Sometimes, they take more than one year to send the card. Again, the railway authorities find one objection or another and reject the application.

The civil hospital authorities sometimes don't know the procedure or formalities required. As a result, the family of the disabled person has to return empty-handed from Ferozpur even after completing all formalities.  Again when we get the card, we can get reservation for two persons only: that is, one disabled person and one escort, and a third person, if any, can't be entertained in the same form. 

If the disabled person does not have the card, he has to go to the railway station to get the reservation done by filling in the reservation form manually.

Suggestions for Railways

Every main railway station should be accessible to disabled persons. Lifts should be provided to connect different platforms through overbridges. There should be at least one compartment with a ramp or low-level gate as in the case of metro trains. Train compartments should be designed like those of the metro. The compartments should be interconnected with each other internally. 

It is difficult to make all compartments disabled-friendly due to financial constraints, but the facility should be extended in a phased manner.  

Other problems

It is unfortunate that Punjab is the only state in the country which has not formulated its disability policy. Its status in the fields of sports, medical, education and local bodies is shown under:

Sports

Its status and how long it will take are not known. 

Medical 

• No early intervention centre is there at civil hospitals in district headquarters.  Their status and how long they will take is not known.
• Disability certificate: Since every district and its medical officers have different working systems, persons with disability in need of certificates have to run from pillar to post, from one office to another and from one table to another in each of those many offices.
• Chief medical officers in the districts refer persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (PwIDD) and other disability categories as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 to psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in Chandigarh or Amritsar without considering the situation of the parents of the PwIDD. This should be stopped and arrangements made for assessment procedures to be done at the district headquarters of the place of the patient. Ideally, it should be done at the sub-divisional level.
• Infrastructure for research and development centres for intellectually disabled/autism is lying unattended. Executive boards, comprising 40-70 per cent parents, should be set up so that the centres start working at once.

Education

• A disability university was sanctioned and land allocated, but nothing has been done so far. 
• The UNCRPD and RPwD Act 2016 mandate inclusive education for children with special needs. But, unfortunately, no private, public, or state-run school has the provision of special educators. There is no monitoring by the education department in this regard.  
• The same is the condition in CBSE/Punjab Education Board about inclusive education and accessibility. 
• Monitoring must be ensured by the UGC for admissions and residential accommodation for PwD and PwIDD and by state government for the rights of PwD/PwIDD. 

Local bodies

• Improvement trusts, municipal corporations and urban development administrations must ensure policies for commercial and residential spaces for PwD and PwIDD quota; land for NGOs for residential and vocational centres be provided; and accessibility in public and private buildings be ensured.
• The district commissioner of each district should be made the competent authority to issue legal guardianship certificates for PwIDD.