"Level Boarding = Level Playing Field.
Anything less and it's not PUBLIC transport.
#BusKaro excuses!"
For 15+ years now, India's disabled citizens have been advocating for public transport that actually includes ALL.
All these years wheelchair users heard the same tired excuses Illustration from MoHUA transport Conference in 2021 called
@armanaly @NPRD_IN @drsitu @SCVashishth @vjayakumar @RajivSpeaks @Shampa_Sengupta @Deepak_TMN @SUMNetIndia ... Roads and Monsoons (And Money... And other conveniently selective 3rd world excuses from the Land of Chandrayaan)

In 15 years India's space odyssey has witnessed 2 missions to the moon, 1 to Mars with 2022 promising Chandrayaan 3, Aditya and prep for Mars 2 and Venus in 2024 Image of a woman on crutches crawling onto a high floor bus
Yet (as the pic above showed) Fathima still laboriously boards a bus on crutches. She has to crawl up the steps of the ubiquitous Indian high floor bus.

Yet, Fathima's 'lucky', at least she gets to somehow use public transport unlike India's wheelchair users under house arrest
As we've been saying for 15 years + ... A safer, better way forward for public transport vis a vis buses means quite simply 3 things :
* Low Floor
* Step Free
* Level Boarding
SO #BusKaro with excuses and outdated technology.
Accessible travel for ALL isn't rocket science, India!
.. So we were dismayed in early February '22 that @ConvergenceCESL's 'biggest ever bus tender in India' featured a requirement of at least 1550 high floor buses - not just a regressive step (pun intended) but also non-compliant with UBS-II & AIS bus codes Table of Original Demand dated 21 Jan 2022 in CESL's electri
Despite flagging the #FAME2 subsidy scheme's historic non-compliance with UBS-II, AIS-052, AIS-153 with @MHI_GoI - (same Ministry of Heavy Industry that oversees ARAI - framers of AIS bus body code standards!) the @ConvergenceCESL tender remained unchanged
Despairing of @MoHUA_India @MHI_GoI @MinOfPower @ConvergenceCESL inaction, on 24 Feb 2022, FMC - a pan-Indian group of disability rights activists & organisations, sent an official representation to CESL (read after press note @ bit.ly/cesl-bus-karo )
On 26 Feb 22, Freedom of Movement Coalition was pleased to note that @TSRTAIndia joined @dtchq_delhi and @BMTC_BENGALURU in tendering for only low floor buses. As @CommissionerSMC tender is for BRTS as per @ConvergenceCESL, @TransportWest is only outlier!
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… Text : Thank you Telangana for joining Delhi and Bangalore i
Following FMC's 2 Mar '22 meeting with @ConvergenceCESL, a representation was sent to WB Transport authorities @FirhadHakim @TransportWest stressing Kolkata's contravention of UBS-II, AIS, 2016 Disability Act, Supreme Court and requesting low floor buses. bit.ly/oh-kolkata Crowded road in Kolkata with many blue buses, yellow taxis a
While we wait for Kolkata to comply by 7 March '22 - (scheduled end date of @ConvergenceCESL tender) we'd like to remind Surat @CommissionerSMC that BRTS infra accessibility should be guaranteed and high floor buses should not be recycled for city bus use.
Correction - linked tweet has wrong table and info on original @ConvergenceCESL tender. It should read :
.. So we were dismayed in early Feb '22 that India's 'biggest ever bus tender' required at least 1850 high floor buses - flouting UBS & AIS bus codes.
Image : Table of Original Demand dated 21 Jan 2022 in CESL's

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More from @DisabilityIndia

Aug 26, 2021
How long will disabled lives be sacrificed due to crying govt departments claiming they don't have money for pension funds?

Cost of low floor bus
vs
cost of disabled person's education, livelihood and freedom.
How can we even compare without looking at the bigger picture?
#A11y
Disabled people are under involuntary house arrest due to inaccessible public transport.

The Govt of Tamil Nadu has magnanimously made travel free for women and disabled @mkstalin .

Yay mobility = right, but how can a wheelchair user board a 3 step bus?

Low floor is for all
MTC has some cheek using the pandemic as an excuse when all TN's 4000+ buses bought since Madras High Court's order in 2016, are in contempt of the mandate of disabled-friendly buses.

At ~1100 mm floor height, they're under the TRUCK, not bus code!

#a11y
Read 8 tweets
Jul 28, 2021
Dear @Subramanian_ma ,
It has come to our notice that @NHM_TN and @chennaicorp have planned a 'drive' tomorrow (29-7-21) in Chennai with 19 buses to 'round up' destitute homeless people with significant mental health problems and bus them for eventual treatment.

This is unlawful
Only @chennaipolice_ is authorised to intervene in this case as per Mental Health Care Act 2017. ONLY when police officer of area jurisdiction has reason to believe of person wandering at large that there is presence of mental illness AND inability to fend for self / poses risk Read section 100 of MHCA here : https://disabilityrightsalli
Even in case of this subset, the police is to inform the person of the grounds for taking into protection. With your 19 buses and target of 400 unsuspecting homeless PLMI, HOW do you propose to do this in one day.

More importantly, WHY would you choose such a dehumanising way?
Read 10 tweets
Mar 1, 2021
Redo it @MoHFW_INDIA
#20 Persons with disabilities due to Intellectual disabilities/ Muscular Dystrophy/ Acid attack with involvement of respiratory system/ Persons with disabilities having high support needs/ Multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness
pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa…
Disability need not be a co-morbidity, but most disabled citizens in the Indian context, are at a higher risk for Covid acquisition and death. And while the inclusion of some disabilities in India's Phase II vaccination strategy is welcome from an inclusion pov, it's not enough.
So call this a vaccine priority list of high risk groups instead of a co-morbidity list @NITIAayog . And remove the age bar for disability - there is enough evidence in India's Covid death data to support what every disabled Indian knows - they rarely emerge alive from hospitals.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 18, 2020
Thread : Disability & #COVID2019india

Putting disability-related Coronavirus action points in 1 place.

1st, as told to @ndmaindia , crisis comm from @MoHFW_INDIA and states is classist and ableist. Bilingual, responsive, multimodal content pls. #A11y bit.ly/33sFLkX
We've had to defy Govt rules on approved content, in the interest of serving the disability community in India by making a resource for a range of specific needs of PwD in India - sign language, AAC, media description, EasyRead... #DIDRR bit.ly/aider-covid19
Shame @MSJE_AIC !
What about sustaining other regular life-saving interventions in the time of #covidindia ?
Blood for those who are transfusion dependent and disinfection protocols for those who are dialysis dependent for a start?

Again, individual organising as rescue! timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru…
Read 9 tweets
Nov 14, 2019
It's #ChildrensDay2019 in India today, so gather around for a rambling story about a Colaba boy called Tarun who loves balloons.

(Almost said loved there, but how this story ends is up to you and the youniverse.) A balloon seller outside some small shops is almost completely obscured by masses of Indian tricolour balloons with some red heart balloons interspersed.
@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza Tarun also loves to dance.

Flashback to the eve of another Indian great's birthday...

It's 1st October and Maharashtra is in the throes of election fever.

Tarun is carried away by an election rally, dancing away from his comfort zone of home, neighbours and balloon seller.
@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza That was Tarun grooving away, enjoying his dance moves, grinning happily in his black t-shirt and blue 3/4 pants with a party scarf someone draped on him.

There's something almost Pied Piperesque about him being drawn away from safety. Strange one should think of Pied Piper...
Read 15 tweets
Jul 29, 2019
Hullo, what have we here @MoHFW_INDIA ?!

Your recently released Clinical Establishments guidelines 2019 indicate that 'mentally disabled' will need a guardian for informed consent!

First off why are you equating disabled people with minors?
mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/…

#Capacity Appendix 9 EXTRACT <br />
INFORMED CONSENT or CONSENT GUIDELINES<br />
The informed consent shall at the least contain the following information in an understandable language and format (desirably which a lay person can easily understand) <br />
Page 133 of Clinical Establishments Amendments 2019 : www.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/clinicalestablishment.pdf" src="/images/1px.png" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAqARquUwAAJ7AP.jpg">
@MoHFW_INDIA @EqualsCPSJ @RajivSpeaks @Deepak_TMN @drsitu @netshrink @vjayakumar @amritbakhshy @val_resh @SmithaSadasiva5 Next - bad enough we've had to suffer conflation of 'unsound mind' with mental illness, now we have a sweeping 'mental disability' which means ... what exactly?
@MoHFW_INDIA @EqualsCPSJ @RajivSpeaks @Deepak_TMN @drsitu @netshrink @vjayakumar @amritbakhshy @val_resh @SmithaSadasiva5 If you cannot assume capacity for all, suspect capacity for all. Stop singling out disabled people for guardian consent.
Embrace diversity in communication and supported decision making.
No mention of advance directives?
#Competence #RPWD #MHCA #CRPD #PatientAdvocate #GAL #DNR
Read 6 tweets

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