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Oct 09, 2015

India's disabled face mobility challenges

May 28, 2009
While technology in locomotion and mobility for the disabled has taken great strides worldwide, India
continues to use antiquated tricycles and wheelchairs. Designing user-friendly appliances would ameliorate their conditions.
Bangalore: India passed a law for equal opportunities and rights for persons with disabilities in 1995, but in spite of taking more steps
than some other developing countries, its 60 million physically challenged population remains hugely disadvantaged.
There are very few options in wheelchair production, especially for children, with no regular supply of
whatever is available, K.N. Gopinath, assistant director of the Bangalore-based Association of People with
Disabilities (APD), a national organisation working to empower the physically challenged said.
Technology in locomotion and mobility for the disabled has progressed worldwide, but India continues to
use antiquated tricycles and wheelchairs as mobility devices.
Basic understanding of mobility is lacking in India today, APD director V.S. Basavaraju said.
Thirty-two-year-old Usman, who works for a company manufacturing aids and appliances for the disabled in
Bangalore, says he has never boarded a bus or train. Even though people are willing to help you, it is still nearly impossible to use public
transport here.
"Only 15% of the loco motor disabled in India are able to use public transport"
Nineteen-year-old Hanumantha says he has an arrangement with a colleague to drop him home every evening. In return Hanumantha
buys him a ticket to the movies once a fortnight. My father brings me to office everyday, carries me and sits me down, he says.
Only about 15% of the loco motor disabled in India are able to use public transport, as compared to over 65% of disabled populations in
developed countries. The rest struggle to commute daily - or are immobilised.
Indias social support network of family and friends is much stronger than in developed nations, but there is little barrier-free access to
public facilities.
Usman is one of the luckier ones. His inputs on what suits the disabled most were used by his employers, the Bangalore-based Indian
company Flexitron, to design a low-cost, motorised, rechargeable bike for the disabled, priced Rs. 18,000 (356 dollars). Similar bikes cost
around 3,000 dollars in western markets.
Most of Flexitron's labour are disabled or challenged individuals who test their own products for usability and durability, thereby serving
both their own livelihood interests and those of the company.
But private companies like Flexitron lack access to government channels which use the public sector Artificial Limbs Manufacturing
Company (ALIMCO) to source disability appliances.
Not surprisingly, Flexitron now has a major market outside India, selling low- cost, low-wattage consumption technologies, including 53
disability-assistance devices, to 16 countries.
Flexitron director R.S. Hiremath acknowledges that India has a poor record in research and development, but says there are several
low-cost options that could be made in India for everyday needs, such as cutlery that can be grasped by those without fingers, or mats that
allow a person to transport himself from wheelchair to bed, or bathroom devices.
These would be simple devices, so very useful for the disabled, at half the price compared to western countries, he says.
But progress is patchy. There is no actual discussion across all sectors of related users and manufacturers, Gopinath told a gathering at
the APD golden jubilee celebrations in Bangalore last month. He said that the 1995 law, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act is dependent on funding without designating a specified source for it.
Indias Deputy Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, T.D. Dhariyal, says each state in India has its own priorities to arrange funding.
India is a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asia-Pacific Region and to
the Biwako Millennium framework for action towards an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society. The Biwako framework of the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) was agreed in Japan in 2002.
Barrier-free systems use appliances and designs such as stair lifts at metro stations, wheelchair-friendly ramps, Braille signboards, and
accessible ticketing counters.
The only places in Asia with near-total barrier-free public environments by UNESCAP standards are Hong Kong and Japan.
Dhariyal says Indias Disabilities Act of 1995 provides a strong fillip to ensuring the rights of the disabled.
I am currently fighting a case in court of a visually impaired government officer who has been denied the position of District Collector (a
senior administrative rank) because of his disability, says Dhariyal. The Act now makes it possible to take up such cases, he said.
Indias Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, responsible for the disabled, has six schemes for rehabilitation, livelihood, education
and assisted device grants, more than what most other nations have.

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India's disabled face mobility challenges OWSA: OneWorld South ...

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"The amount of assistance is however inadequate"

The amount of assistance on offer is, however, inadequate. How much can Rs 6,000 (118 dollars), given as grant for aids and appliances
by the government really help? says Hiremath.
But many are not able to access even this fund.
My experience is that most of the current funding available (for disability- related aid) remains unused, Dhariyal said.
We (APD) are now saying that what we have today in India is not enough, that we need value addition to mobility issues, says APD
director V.S. Basavaraju.
Dhariyal agrees that quality could be improved. If aids of better quality are the issue, then somebody should approach the Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment (looking after disability-related governance) and put it to them, he says, sending the ball back to the
court of organisations like APD.
Source : IPS

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