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Svayam conducts Access Workshop for Disabled community leaders at Aarth Astha

New Delhi : 16 March 2012

Svayam Team conducted a Training Workshop on “Accessibility in Community Infrastructure” at the invitation of Astha India (NGO) for the disabled community leaders of Lal Kuan and Govind Puri slums.   The community leaders with disabilities have come together under the umbrella of “Viklang Ekta Manch”. Several parents, family members and members of Astha staff were also present in the training session.

The whole exercise was facilitated by Aarth Astha and coordinated by Mr. Binod – himself a person with disability and the community lead for Astha. The leaders were also briefed on conducting access audits and approaching the right authorities for making things happen.

The inputs from Pradeep, Punam and several others regarding the ground conditions in their residential colonies were eye openers for many of us! The training was followed by a Question and Answer session which brought out several issues from attitude of drivers of Delhi Transport Corporation towards the disabled people to inaccessibility from the house to the nearest bus stop / metro station and of admissions in the university under the disability quota to lack of accessible and affordable public transportation to attend college.

It came out that several disabled members despite being very bright and interested to pursue education could not attend colleges /work due to lack of seamless access from their houses/dwellings to the nearest bus stop. Also due to lack of direct accessible transport options, many could not purse regular education. Various government schools in the vicinity were not accessible to children with disabilities and children, especially girls did not go to the school because of lack of accessible and hygenic toilets in the  school.

“Astha’s mandate is to empower persons with disabilities in communities to take up their issues themselves. We are thankful to Svayam Team for agreeing to conduct this workshop for our disabled community leaders at such a short notice. Inaccessibility in the residential dwellings especially in the slums where Astha work has been a big barrier for the children to come out and avail the rehabilitation facilities and options of education and vocation. Disabled community leaders like Pradeep and Poonam are taking this lead and I am sure this workshop will equip them with necessary knowledge to take up their fight against inaccessibility in their colonies to its logical conclusion”, said Ms. Sudha Vohra, Executive Director- Astha.

It is proposed to take this forward by active advocacy for the accessibility rights by the members of the Self Help Group – Viklang Ekta Manch with support from Svayam and Aarth Astha.

Some visuals from the workshop:

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Public Transportation is the key to Urban Mess

Now every body agrees that Public Transportation is the key to urban chaos. However, it must go in a planned way where citizens are prepared well in advance. Shift to dedicated corridors in a new thing to many developing economies and hence public education should be an important step before implementing such policies. Also local needs and perception needs to be addressed.

Gujarat successfully implemented its BRT project ironing out the shortcomings that Delhi BRT faced and even got an international Award “Sustainable Transport Award” at TRB meeting during January 2010 at Washington.

Now even Delhi Government seems to have learnt from its BRT fiasco. Delhi transport commissioner RK Verma said BRT was a concept that Delhi government had turned down at first. ‘‘If we want BRT to become successful, we need to adapt it to the needs of people in the area where it is being implemented.’’

With Bangalore moving to dedicated corridors, here are some comments from Senior transport engineer for sustainable transport from the USA, Dario Hidalgo.

‘Bus Rapid Transit needs infrastructure to work’

 To read from source click here

BANGALORE: Senior transport engineer for sustainable transport from the USA, Dario Hidalgo, on Friday pointed out that building roads, flyovers, underpasses and widening of roads is not enough to get rid of traffic congestion in urban areas.

 “Besides BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), infrastructure and accessibility should be created for non-motorised transport for pedestrians and cyclists,” he said.

 He said that the BRT system in Asia is not yet fully understood by stakeholders, at a day-long national workshop on BRT held by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport. He added that Delhi’s problems resulted in a negative impact on BRT all over India as the Delhi bus corridor had several problems in its first weeks.

Hidalgo said BRT is a high quality public transport system, oriented to users and offering fast, comfortable and low-cost urban mobility. He stressed the importance of BRT for Bangalore. “Following economic development, numbers of vehicles are increasing faster than population,” he said.

The Comprehensive Transport and Traffic Plan for Bangalore proposes that BRT can be done for 291.5 km at a cost of Rs 3,498 crore in two phases in 14 corridors. The proposal is to develop BRT on the Outer Ring Road as a pilot project from Hebbal to Central Silk Board junction.

The bus system would have a dedicated corridor and operate new technology buses designed for urban environment.

Hidalgo said that BRT does not need wide roads to be incorporated in urban areas. “BRT will be a success provided it has dedicated bus lanes and elevated tracks besides integrating the feeder services with the system,” he added.

 Transport Secretary S Shankarlinge Gowda said that BRT can be incorporated in Bangalore if certain corridors are facilitated for it.

“Without the involvement of civic bodies, BRT cannot be implemented.

 The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) should be proactive and take up the project,” he added.

Gowda said that BRT should also be planned for developing cities like Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad. “BDA should take up developing of BRT for 30 km in the first phase,” he added.