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Empanelment of Access Auditors for Accessible India Campaign

Dear Friends,

As you know, the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) was recently launched on December 3, the International Day of Persons of Disabilities.

One of the targets under the objective of enhancing the proportion of accessible government buildings is to conduct access audits of the most important buildings in 50 cities of the country, and then retrofitting them to become fully accessible.

In order to achieve this, the Department envisions to build a pool of auditors across the country. An expression of interest from experienced individuals /organizations /registered societies for conducting access audits as part of the Accessible India Campaign is invited. Please follow the link to apply for empanelment with the Department as an auditor, and also encourage organizations/individuals having relevant expertise and experience to apply for the same.

Link – http://www.disabilityaffairs.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/EOI%20Access%20Audit.pdf

For any queries, please feel free to write to the Campaign Secretariat at email accessibleindiacampaign@gmail.com

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GOI seeks partnership with Corporate sector for Accessible India Campaign

Government of India reaches out to the Corporate Sector seeking partnership in realising the dream of #AccessibleIndia. The corporates can take up a public buildings & spaces. The mobile app to give wings to this programme is likely to be launched towards the end of August 2015.

Here is the coverage in Economic Times:

Accessible India: Let’s make public buildings disabled friendly says government to India Inc
By NIDHI SHARMA, ET Bureau | 8 Aug, 2015, 04.00AM IST

NEW DELHI: Adopt a public building and make it disabled-friendly – this is what the government is telling companies. As part of its Sugamya Bharat or Accessible India initiative, the Centre is roping in big corporates and asking them to take up a school, hospital, park, mall or other public building in their city for this purpose.

The initiative will begin with the identification of public places that are inaccessible to the differently abled and need minor structural changes, including ramps for wheelchairs or tactile strips and braille signage for the visually challenged. The department of disability affairs in the ministry of social justice and empowerment is developing a mobile app in connection with this initiative. Using this, anyone can take a photograph of a public building and upload it, flagging how it’s not disabled friendly.

The department of disability affairs will draw up a list of buildings that need to be upgraded and send it to the states.

“The ministry or the states would not have the funds to make all these corrections,” a senior ministry official told ET. “But corporate players and private firms would have money under their corporate social responsibility schemes to undertake such initiatives.”

Even before the launch of the mobile app or the initiative, the disability division has started getting queries from the corporate sector. “A Bangalore-based firm has asked us how can they be of some help in this initiative,” the official said.

Even before the launch of the mobile app or the initiative, the disability division has started getting queries from the corporate sector. “A Bangalore-based firm has asked us how can they be of some help in this initiative,” the official said.

“A few other queries have come. As we formally launch the programme by the end of this month, we are confident the corporate players would come forward and adopt public buildings.”

Source: Economic Times 

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First Meeting of Steering Committee, Accessible India Campaign held

A meeting of the newly formed Steering Committee for the Accessible India Campaign {सुगम्य भारत अभियान) was held on 30 April 2015 at Paryavaran Bhavan chaired by Mr. Lov Verma, the Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and steered by the Joint Secretary Mr. Mukesh Jain.

This historic meeting was attended by representatives from national institutes (visual, hearing and physically handicapped) and office of chief commissioner for persons with disability. State government officials and representatives from Union ministries like Labour, Social Welfare, Health, Sports and Youth affairs, Urban Development, Civil Aviation, Rural Development, Culture (ASI), Delhi Metro and CPWD, were also present.

In a strong commitment to the UNCRPD “Nothing about us, without us”, the steering committee also had representation from disability sector which included National NGOs such as Svayam, Samarthyam, Enabling Unit of the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi University and National Association for the Blind giving their critical inputs.

The DEPwD is creating a dedicated portal on Accessible India Campaign where they or any other person can directly will be able to upload pictures and status of accessibility of buildings and public spaces via an mobile app on the portal. this crowd sourcing of data on accessibility will then be gradually addressed by connecting the grievances to the concerned departments & MSJE for constant folow up and also funding linkages to implement accessibility mandate in a time bound manner. The portal will also have information about Access Guidelines on various areas, training modules, best practices, list of vendors for the access products etc.

The Centre’s ambitious Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) will start from seven states – Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Assam, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Haryana- from this year envisaging a nation-wide awareness campaign towards universal accessibility for all citizens including persons with disabilities.

According to senior officials of the ministry, it has created a dedicated program management unit, steering committee and other sub-committees in the ministry with representation of professionals and experts to create media strategy and media planning, conduct awareness workshops for sensitization of all key stakeholders as identified and creation and dissemination of educational booklets for spreading the awareness. The next stage is to sign MoU with various ministries and state government agencies for their role and responsibilities for the campaign. This nationwide flagship campaign is aimed at achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

While the plan is to achieve a barrier free environment for the PwDs in next five years, the initial impetus is on capacity building and awareness campaign.

Related Media Coverage: Times of India