Govt. of India invites proposals from States to ensure Disabled Friendly public buildings & websites

Dear Friends,

A recent press release from the Union Govt. invites from the States proposals to the tune of 100 crore to ensure that their all public buildings and websites are made barrier free. This is remarkable initiative from the Centre.

However, are there sufficient experts who can help state governments achieve this? Average website site developers know nothing about W3C standards and those who know little ask for exceptionally huge amount of money to do the work. There are very few genuine organisations who are dedicated and know their job well, but they are very busy!

Similarly, there is no system in the country to train the existing architects and engineers involved in maintaining and developing physical infrastructure so that the desired accessibility in the infrastructure could be ensured.

There have been efforts on the part of civil society and sensitization workshops have been conducted here and there but that doesn’t ensure that the implemented work will be accessible to the end user for the perceptions of accessibility have been found to be far removed from the actual accessibility!

Also, while it may be easy to plan new infrastructure as accessible, it is equally difficult to address the existing buildings  of universities, schools, hospitals, institutions, offices, public spaces etc in absence of trained access auditors. Retrofitting also poses specific challenges of space, location and financial viability!

Thirdly, the multiple standards on physical accessibility of public infrastructure adds to the confusion of the existing sensitized professionals. While the effort from the Ministry of Urban Development to harmonize the existing multiple standards viz. BIS standards on Functional Requirements in Buildings, Chief Commissioner Disabilities document on barrier free environment and the one with CPWD on barrier free environment will bring out some concrete document in near future, however as of date it is utter chaos.

The existing standards fail to satisfy the aspirations of persons with disabilities  and the mandate of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Still the effort is on special design to address the need of disabled and not Universal Design that serves all. The Government of India should consider these issues on urgent basis since the call for proposals has been published.

regards

SC Vashishth

The Press Release:

Centre Invites Proposals from States for Giving Central Assistance to the tune of Rs. 100 Crore to Provide Barrier free Environment in Govt Buildings and to Make Government Websites Accessible to Persons With Disabilities

The Centre has invited proposals from States to give central assistance to provide barrier free environment in important State Government buildings in the State Secretariat, Collectorates, Main Hospitals, Universities and other important Government offices to ensure that these are accessible to the Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

Central assistance will also be given to make Government Websites at the State and District levels accessible to PwDs as per guidelines for Indian Government Websites issued by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances.

Proposals from States have been invited by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under the “Scheme for Implementation of PwD Act, 1995 (SIPDA)” after effecting a major increase in the annual allocation under this Scheme from Rs. 15-20 crore in the past to Rs. 100 crore this year.

The Ministry has made a notional allocation to the States based upon their population of PwDs as per Census, 2001 and has requested them to sent proposals on that basis. For example, a notional allocation of Rs. 16.50 crore has been made for Uttar Pradesh, 8.90 crore for West Bengal, 7.90 crore for Tamil Nadu, 7.60 crore for Maharashtra, 6.70 crore for Madhya Pradesh and 6.60 crore for Andhra Pradesh. Similar notional allocations have also been communicated to other States based on their population of PwDs.

It may be recalled that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), 2008, to which India is a signatory, calls for making buildings, work places, facilities including information, communication and other services etc accessible to PwDs on an equal basis. The Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri Mukul Wasnik, had written to the Chief Ministers of all States earlier this year urging them to make the important buildings and websites of the State Government accessible to People with disabilities in a time bound manner.

Central assistance on significant scale is provided to states under “Scheme for Implementation of PwD Act, 1995 (SIPDA) to encourage them to move in that direction.

source: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=66210