In Delhi, urban transport has undergone a sea change in the last decade. But how accessible are the Delhi Metro, DTC buses and the railways to the differently abled?
Mahesh Kumar (40) takes the Blue Line Metro daily from Uttam Nagar, where he lives, to Tagore Garden, where he teaches in a government school. In November 2013, this visually impaired man reached the Uttam Nagar (West) Metro station to board the train as usual. He was in the lift going up to the platform, when he heard the train. He asked a fellow passenger if the train had arrived. On being told it has, Kumar decided to hurry. He did not have a Metro assistant escorting him that day — he had asked for one but nobody was “free”. So he walked unescorted towards the train. Before he knew it, he lost his balance and fell onto the tracks. Mercifully, there was no train coming on that track and Kumar escaped with minor injuries.
“I was walking at the very edge of the platform and yet nobody paid attention. It was only after I fell that people screamed. That alerted the DMRC staff who came and helped me get up. Usually, I get a Metro assistant to escort me till the train. But if none are available, we have to walk alone,” Kumar said.
His plight is mirrored by other visually challenged persons who commute on Delhi’s Metro, buses and trains every day. In the past three years, more than 30 visually challenged persons approached the National Federation of the Blind with complaints after they fell off the platforms of various Metro stations in the city.
But such incidents involving the disabled are not limited to the Metro system alone. Similar accidents on Delhi’s buses and at railway platforms show clearly that the capital has a long way to go when it comes to making its public spaces, particularly urban transport, disabled-friendly.

Needed: Preventive barriers on Metro platforms, helpers for visually impaired
Vice-president of National Federation of the Blind Inder Singh says the most critical problem the disabled, particularly visually challenged, face at Metro stations is the problem of falling on the tracks due to the gap between the coaches and
the platforms.

“The rubber-strips between the coaches and platforms are worn out. As a result, many visually challenged people end up hurting themselves. The most recent case is that of Sanjay Jha, a North Delhi resident who works with the Railways. He fell on the tracks and fractured his left hand,” Singh said.

The other problem, he feels, is an absence of steel railings on several platforms. “They have metal railings at the edge of platforms in Rajiv Chowk station. Why can’t they put them up at all stations?” he says.

Also, Metro assistants who help disabled persons at stations are reportedly unavailable most of the time. “Metro has no official post of assistants. Usually, when a visually impaired or disabled person approaches a Metro official for assistance, they ask one of their housekeeping staff — sweepers, cleaners, guards — to escort the person. Usually, we have to wait for nearly 30 minutes for an assistant. But who has that kind of time to spare? Many visually challenged students and employees are forced to board the train alone rather than get late for school, college or work,” Singh says.

When Singh himself fell at the INA Metro station last year, he approached the station manager with the issue. “I gave my feedback and suggestions and was told that it would be forwarded to the persons concerned. But nothing has been done so far,” he says.

There are also those who feel that when it comes to aiding the disabled, the Metro is far better than other urban transport  odes.

Rajive Raturi, in-charge of Asia-Pacific region of Disability Rights Promotion International, and is visually-impaired himself, feels accessibility is one of the most important concerns for people with disability and the Metro does justice to the cause to some extent.

“The Delhi Metro is the latest urban transport mode, so it is more accessible than others. It has tactile gradings to guide the blind and colour markings for people with low vision. There are ramps and lifts for the benefit of the wheelchair-bound. The audio-announcement systems are also helpful.”

Raturi describes the availability of helpers as a “good facility”, which was brought about by the efforts of young visually-impaired people.

“Metro has now introduced helpline numbers for the blind, so a person receives them at the gate and escorts them till the coach,” he said.

According to Singh, the Delhi Metro could look to airports to see how to help the disabled. “At airports, a disabled person is given an assistant at the gate. The assistant leaves only after the person is comfortably seated in the aircraft. This must be emulated at bus stops and railway stations too,” he says.

‘General passengers, RPF personnel travel in coach reserved for disabled’
Lakhs of passengers daily use the three railway stations in the capital — the New Delhi, Old Delhi and the Nizamuddin railway stations. But, problems for a disabled traveller begins even before he/she reaches the station.
 
 SOURCE: Indian Express