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DRA India (Disability Rights Alliance) Profile picture
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Jun 25 • 13 tweets • 8 min read
Non-compliance with the Harmonised Guidelines on accessibility for disabled citizens is not only a building violation but a violation of our right to freedom of movement & access. And RPwD Act.

Not one public facility in India will pass the AIC audit checklist!
#WhereIsOurAzadi
Please issue Stop Work notice on TN Govt till attitude towards accessibility requirements in respected and rectified @CMDA_Official @chennaicorp !

You have an active and vibrant disability presence in the State, activists have been non-adversarial for decades and input pro bono.
Why then has the Tamil Nadu Government shamefully sought extra time of a year from Central Govt to make existing infrastructure accessible as per the time limit of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016?

What were you doing for 5 years after passage of the RPwD Rules?
Leaving aside the appalling inaction of authorities on existing infrastructure, what of the new public infrastructure ,(Bus, bus stop, Eco Park, health centre, toilet, Metro etc) being tendered daily with procurement specifications designed to exclude persons with disabilities?
Govts use the term disabled-friendly loosely - artificial societal barriers that block us is our disability-hostile reality.

Why display plans only at construction site @anshulmishra555 ? Put plans of planned public infra online for citizens to access. Whose state is it anyway? A row of bollards with very little space inbetween them exte
In the court of the @Tn_Diff_abled recently on a #WeWantTLC Tender Legal Compliance case, @chennaicorp representative said all bollards have adequate width.
This abomination is just outside Ripon Building @GSBediIAS.
Thanks to @itdpindia Chennai has no tactile guidance for blind.
Yet, despite RPwD Act clearly mandating @CPWDGOV Harmonised Guidelines 2016 accessibility compliance, TN Govt's Transport Department says that a Technical Committee is exploring bus stop designs as advised by @ITDP!

Why can't you follow your own laws?!

drive.google.com/file/d/1YDPUwa… Screenshot of linked TN Transport department affidavit in bu
It's a different matter of course that even @DGCPWD has not addressed the @MoHUA_India directive (No.K-14011/48/2006-UT (Vol. IV) Dated 8 November, 2012) necessitating level boarding of low floor buses via a 400 mm boarding platform, in the Harmonised Guidelines' bus stop design. Screenshot of 2012 advisory on level boarding from bus shelt
But remember that bit where we said we're happy to help, mostly pro bono?

Here's a bus stop design & proof of concept from a decade back in Delhi as demoed by @access_anjlee @samarthyam.

Yet current GCC bus shelter tender 2022_CoC_234256_1 doesn't specify these details.

Why? Accessible bus stop design courtesy SamarthyamDesign for guiding strips for visually impaired at bus stop 2013 demo of 400 mm level boarding by Samarthyam of low floo
Coming back to tender compliance & transparency of public infrastructure design - the absence of any relevant accessibility specifications (or poor copy paste jobs of even other specifications - toilets have macadam laying specs!) bodes ill for the future.
DRA has experienced reluctance in viewing public infrastructure drawings from 2012 with @cmrlofficial .

In 2022 a month after @AshwiniVaishnaw (& press) saw Egmore Station redevelopment plans, @DrmChennai asks us to wait 1 more week for any info. 😑
Time's up. No more extra time for you to give us the run around. For close to 2 decades the states of roads and waterlogging are being used to deny disabled Indian citizens the right to independent, dignified bus transport. If you haven't gotten it right in all this time, too bad
From 1998 @CPWDGOV has said more or less the same things in guidelines and space standards for barrier-free built environment for disabled and elderly persons.

Enough of enforced house arrest and surprising press with visibility on voting day.
Our time is now. No more excuses!

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More from @DisabilityIndia

DRA India (Disability Rights Alliance) Profile picture
Jun 25
Whose side are you batting for @MSJE_AIC @MSJEGOI @Drvirendrakum13 @PratimaBhoumik @socialpwds?

"The States/UTs were advised to assess public buildings by 31-7-22 & submit the proposal seeking extension of time, if needed, with justification & detailed action plan."
#15June2022
Are you supposed to uphold the rights and participation of disabled Indian citizens or are you Personal Assistant to Central Govt & States of the Union?
When a statute provides for a time limit, then the basic rule of statutory interpretation is that the deadline must be observed
"If provision for extension is made then logically the extension has to be sought by the party who has failed to meet the deadline.  It is ironical that instead of issuing notice to the states asking them to explain why they have failed to meet the time limit..." @Drvirendrakum13
Read 6 tweets
DRA India (Disability Rights Alliance) Profile picture
Jun 3
Thread on uninformed policymaking & PLCP.

So @DGCAIndia has proposed an addition to the CAR (Civil Aviation Rules) related to air travel passengers with disabilities after the #IndigoIncident at @aaiRanchiApt - comments by 2nd July to rthakur.dgca@nic.in

dgca.gov.in/digigov-portal/ Text of CAR amendment draft. Addition of clause 4.1.36 which
First off, thanks to @DGCAIndia for obliging with a month for comments as per the PLCP (pre legislative consultation process) guidelines - some 100+ pages policy documents give barely a week.
But as a policy on disability, the amendment formatting can't be read by blind citizens!
Strikethrough formatting can be interpreted as cancelled text only by sighted. And grey highlighted text (signifying new clause here) isn't distinguished by default by screenreading software used by blind to access electronic text.

GIGW compliance is required since 15 June 2019 Screen Reader Example This is an example of the JAWS screen
Read 12 tweets
DRA India (Disability Rights Alliance) Profile picture
May 28
This is not enough @DGCAIndia @MoCA_GoI @JM_Scindia.
People need to recognise the diversity in human communication, behaviour and appearance. Disabled people don't need doctors to certify their 'fitness' to fly, some unwell passengers may. CAR changes with disabled reps only pls!
Missing InAction: Airlines shall incorporate appropriate provisions on website within 3 months from CAR date of issue, so that while making bookings, passengers with disability have the option to select the required facilities, required during the journey. flyhigh-dra.blogspot.com/p/civil-aviati…
If you take a look at the @airsewa_MoCA tagged tweets (acknowledged but unfulfilled) you will find major difficulties faced with wheelchair inventory.

Fixable by passengers' specifying mobility requirements via SSR codes (WCHR / WCHS / WCHC) at booking stage itself as per CAR.
Read 15 tweets
DRA India (Disability Rights Alliance) Profile picture
Mar 4
"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
Read 11 tweets
DRA India (Disability Rights Alliance) Profile picture
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
DRA India (Disability Rights Alliance) Profile picture
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

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