Umpteen high-end malls, five-star restaurants et al, yet Delhi takes a backseat when it comes to making infrastructure suitable for wheel-chair ridden people. India is home to an estimated 70 million disabled persons, most of whom are restricted to the confines of their four walls because hanging out in the Capital is still a distant dream for them. Nidhi Mittal tells you how, for builders in India, concern for the handicapped is zilch .
Ritika Singh (name changed), a 30-year-old single girl, plans to catch a film in a multiplex in the Capital. Although there are numerous cinema halls where the film is running, yet it becomes a herculean task for her to find desirable tickets. Not because the film is drawing housefull, but because there is limited choice. Instead, she decides on a quiet dinner. Even though Delhi has hundreds of restaurants where one can binge, yet there are limited choices for Ritika and she ends up going to the same places over and over again!
This may sound strange but is a usual disappointment which the disabled people in the Capital face, Ritika Singh being one of them.
From high-end malls to five-star restaurants, Delhi still takes a backseat when it comes to making infrastructure suitable for wheel-chair ridden people. With more than 75 malls and entertainment hubs, hanging out casually in Delhi is still a distant dream for the disabled. “The PVR in the Select Citywalk mall sells the most expensive tickets and I still can’t think of watching a film there because the hall doesn’t have provisions for ramps,” says Singh who has to make-do with either PVR Priya or PVR Anupam audi 4, as they make her wheelchair mobility easier and she can conveniently enjoy a movie.
Spread over six acres and housing six screen-strong PVR Premier, Selectcity Walk mall is the most urbane structure in the Capital attracting maximum footfall during weekdays as well as weekends. While no lift directly leads to the cinema hall, a flight of six to eight narrow stairs is what one has to struggle with to reach the entrance. And then the audis are again not wheelchair convenient with no ramps, only stairs and narrow leg space between the rows. “The state-of-the-art DT Cinemas in DLF Saket is worse. There is a ramp at the entrance of the cinema hall, but when it comes to the audis, there are at least 15 stairs to reach the sitting area. And if you plan to enter the audi from the exit door, it’s too narrow for a wheelchair!” Singh tells you.
Bukhara, the in-house restaurant of ITC Maurya, has been rated among the top 50 restaurants in the world and the finest one in Asia. People throng the rustic looking dining area only to have its trademark Dal Bukhara available for ` 1,000 a plate. However, for a person on a wheelchair, being in this restaurant is a nightmare, with stairs and congested arrangement of tables all around. “We had to disturb other guests before we could finally take my sister to the table reserved for us. Our mistake was that we assumed that it being a five-star hotel, we don’t have to worry about wheelchair movement,” recalls Amit, adding that a lot of thought has to go into a family outing — all because despite so much development, making infrastructure disabled-friendly is still not Government’s priority.
From ATMs — whose gates are highly located and are too small — to big private sector banks which are all without ramps and elevators, concern for people with disability is visibly zilch. Even popular auditoriums like Siri Fort, Kamani and Pearey Lal Bhawan don’t have lifts or ramps. “Even if they have them, they are inaccessible. At Siri Fort, there is only one area till where I can go. FICCI is an exception in this case. It has full facilities for the wheelchair,” Bansal tells you.
For muscular dystrophy patient Aman Rastogi, going to his classes is a daily hurdle, made more difficult by the inhospitable city. “At places, such as the Noida-Delhi link road, the pavement is almost two feet high. Even a normal person would find it difficult to climb on to such a steep pavement! Just try wheeling down Ajmeri Gate towards the Paharganj-end of New Delhi Railway Station and you would know what a person with handicap faces in the city at public places,” he tells you.
India has an estimated 70 million disabled people, most of them confined to their homes due to a complete lack of accessible infrastructure. Starting from going to the local market, park, cinema hall, railway station or airport, a person with handicaps is forced to depend on an escort. As activists point out, no amount of reservations in educational institutes or jobs and policies or schemes would be of any use to people with disabilities, if they cannot access the outside world independently. With increased awareness though, even private developers are trying to incorporate disabled-friendly features in their malls or cineplexes. But despite their best intentions, these features are hardly serving the purpose, as builders are not aware of the universal design or specifications.
“Any private sector player will tell you they are not aware of specifications or don’t have the money but they are all cutting corners. In the US or Europe, you will not find any McDonalds or Pizza Hut without a ramp et al. They can’t afford to ignore all this because of the strict policies of the governments there. Here, in India, the same outlets don’t give a single thought to such basic needs of a disabled person,” Javed Abidi, director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled Persons (NCPEDP), tells you.
The NCPEDP has been fighting for the disabled people’s cause for last 15 years when its director Abidi, a spina bifida patient, who is on a wheelchair since the age of 15, decided to take it up with the Government himself. A year-and-a-half back, Abidi also went to an extent of staging a dharna outside then Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy’s house and making him agreeing on setting up a committee to look into the fresh set of guidelines which NCPEDP had compiled. The 69-page long document was put together after going through the international standards maintained while construction of buildings, footpaths and other public infrastructres.
“In name, there are three sets of guidelines available. One issued by the CPWD, one by the office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) and the third by the National Building Code. Apart from them being irrelevant and incomplete in nature, they are not binding on the builders. So we framed a fresh set of guidelines and were promised action within three months. But it’s been a year-and-a-half and nothing has happened,” says Abidi, adding how he felt much more mobile on his chair while he was abroad, “specially in Rome”, than he feels anywhere in India.
The new infrastructure like bus stops and modern toilets that were introduced in the Capital during Commonwealth Games are again a half-hearted effort of the Government towards making the city disabled-friendly. “The bus stops which have ramps on both the sides are a bigger slap on our face as the entry from both sides is blocked by the big advertisement steel panels. Same is the case with footpaths which would suddenly have a tree in the middle of it against which a blind person will definitely bang his head,” Abidi points out.
Recommendations to make infrastructure more accessible
Almost any building can be made accessible to disabled people by planning the site such that the terraces, retaining walls and winding walks are used effectively.
Site development is the most effective means to resolve the problems created by topography, definitive architectural designs or concepts, water table, existing streets, and typical problems, singularly or collectively, so that ingress and egress to buildings by disabled people may be facilitated while preserving the desired design and effect of the architecture.
The relative levels of the principal entrance to the building and the entry point to the site (as well as walks across the site) should be designed to, as far as is practicable, provide level access, thereby eliminating the need for ramped and stepped approach.
Public walks should be at least 1200 mm wide and should preferably with level or have the gentlest possible gradient that does not exceed 1 in 20.
Obstacles such as lighting columns, bollards, signposts, seats and trees, should be located at or beyond the boundaries of walkways. Where unavoidable, protruding objects should not reduce the clear width of an accessible route or maneuvering space.
Bollards should be at least 1000 mm high, provide a wheelchair passage width of at least 850 mm, and should not be linked with chains.
Parking spaces for individuals with physical disabilities when placed between two conventional diagonal or head-on parking spaces should be 3.6 m to 3.8 m wide, including a 1200 mm wide wheelchair transfer space on one side, and the length of the aisle should 7.3 m, 6.1 m and 6.5 m for head-on, 90º and 60º parking, respectively. These minimum dimensions include provision of a 1,200 mm wide wheelchair loading/ transferring space along the side and at the rear of the parking bay.
Where there are two accessible parking bays adjoining each other, then the 1200mm side transfer bay may be shared by the two parking bays. The transfer zones, both on the side and the rear should have yellow or white cross-hatch road markings.
Beyond a certain height, ramps become too tiring for the user, even if a number of rest landings have been provided. It is therefore recommended that no series of ramps to a building should rise in total more than 2 meters. If a series of ramp flights rise more than 2 meters an alternative means of access, such as a lift, should be provided.
A ramp shall have handrails on both sides, that are at a height of 900 mm measured from the surface of the ramp, and extend 300 mm beyond the top and bottom of the ramp.. Where major traffic is predominantly children, the hand rails should be placed 760 mm high.
For visually impaired people, ramps may be colour contrasted with landing.
If a door has a closer, then the sweep period of the closer shall be adjusted so that from an open position of 70 degrees, the door will take at least 3 seconds to move to a point 75 mm from the latch, measured to the leading edge of the door. Buildings should preferably have sliding automatic doors.
(As published in The Pioneer on August 27, 2011)
