CHENNAI: It may not be erroneous to say not even one footpath in Chennai is disabled-friendly. Turning a blind eye to an entire community, the infrastructure in the capital city, mainly footpaths, is just not made for persons with disabilities. “Even a normal person would find it difficult to walk on footpaths here. For us, it is a nightmare. Either the footpaths are encroached upon, leaving no space for wheelchairs, or the tiles are broken,” says R Pradeep with locomotive disability.
Persons with disabilities say their social life has been snatched away due to inaccessible footpaths. “To shop in a place like T Nagar, even if we take a cab to reach the location, somebody must lift the wheelchair and place on the footpath for us to access shops. There is no point in making government offices disabled-friendly if the footpaths are not obstruction free,” said TMN Deepak from the December 3 Movement.
Another issue is the government spends crores of rupees every year to install bollards on the pavement. They are supposed to prevent illegal vehicle parking and other encroachments. However, bollards also block wheelchairs. Even the swanky pedestrian plaza in T Nagar is not disabled-friendly.
Vaishnavi Jayakumar, a disability rights activist, who had surveyed the place pointed out there is no priority parking for wheelchairs and only one shop along the entire stretch is accessible for those with locomotive disabilities. For the visually-impaired, forget tactile guiding path, there are no tactile warning strips either. Pedestrian crossings have no signals, too.
Uneven surface, broken ramps, and encroachment by hawkers just add to the difficulties faced by disabled people. “To travel even 200 metres, we are forced to take a cab as that is safer. I pay tax, but I cannot use roads. Accessible infrastructure is a myth,” said Raja Pandian, a resident of Tambaram.
Activists rued accessible infrastructure is required not just for people with disabilities but also for the elderly, children, pregnant women, and people with medical condition or temporary disability. An official from Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities department, on condition of anonymity said, “From laying the roads to maintaining it, a lot of departments are involved in the city. Punitive action against officials who fail to do their job is the only way out.”