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