THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Sir, I want to access public spaces with self-respect,” a severely disabled person told the then Kannur District Collector P Bala Kiran after struggling to reach the first floor of the Collectorate building where his office was located.
It was the difficulty faced by this elderly visitor and many other differently-abled persons who visit the various government offices that made Bala Kiran to come up with a project to make public spaces barrier-free.
The young IAS officer, who is now Director, Panchayats Department, did not limit the scope of the project to his office alone. Instead, he set out on a challenging task to make the entire district disabled-friendly. Thus was born the ambitious project called ‘Barrier-free Kannur’.
In recognition of his efforts, Bala Kiran received the national award for outstanding contributions towards the welfare of the disabled from President Pranab Mukherjee last week.
A Mammoth Task
“We came up with a detailed project and the Social Justice Department promptly sanctioned Rs 15 crore in August 2015. Work on the project started in November last year. Within a span of nine months, the entire project was completed,” Bala Kiran told ‘Thiruvananthapuram Express’.
As part of this project, the district administration prepared barrier-free structures such as ramps with handrails, capsule lifts, toilets with hand wash and tactile flooring and signages in all the public buildings. A total of 1,839 public buildings of 70 government departments in the district were covered. As part of the project, 11 lifts, 14 toilets and 1,839 ramps were built in addition to the construction of barrier free rest rooms.
Bala Kiran attributes the success of the project to the teamwork of the engineers of District Nirmithi Kendra, LSGD Engineering wing and PWD (Buildings) wing with strong support from the local bodies.
The Road Ahead
Taking cue from Bala Kiran’s project, the district administrations of Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Thrissur have already come up with similar proposals to make their respective districts barrier-free. The detailed project reports have been submitted to the Social Justice Department for approval.