Accessibility holds the key to empowerment

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: Accidents never happen to me, old age can never touch me, ailments afflict only strangers, broken bones naa, never me, arthritis cannot be my fate as I gym regularly, and no osteoporosis because I take my daily supplements and have healthy eating habits.

What a wishful thinking if only life could run on the dictates of human whims and fancies. Unfortunately reality is much more harsher and human frailty utterly fragile.

The first casualty resulting from any of these probabilities is ‘mobility’ and the extent of helplessness cannot be gauged by anyone other than the sufferer. The extent of faith in ones infallibility is so much that one hardly spares any thought for people with reduced mobility.

Reduced mobility challenges populace that includes the elderly, expecting mothers, mothers with newborn babies as well as toddlers and the physically challenged or even the ailing. When taken in totality the numbers defy gravity.

Half hearted measures and efforts will not provide accessibility. The callous attitude of the able and the policy makers’ divorce from ground reality have robbed these teeming millions of their basic right to live with dignity.

India seems to be one of the very few countries where even the public transport system and public places are completely inaccessible to people with reduced mobility.

Government housing is a nightmarish grind for accessing even ones own dwelling with dignity. If one falls sick or breaks a leg, the only way to negotiate the never-ending narrow flight of steps is to piggyback on an obliging family member.

In case of fire emergency or earthquake, forget evacuation. There are no emergency exits. How come the learned architects and engineers overlook such basic things and how does the government agency award completion certificates to these dwellings. Is common man’s life and right to dignity of no consequence?

Though government has introduced housing bylaws, there is no one to check whether these changes are being implemented or not. How come systems and procedures are not in place to ensure compliance?