*Visually Impaired Rally for Road Safety* * *
More than 500 blind persons under the aegis of the Paschim Banga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammelani, a constituent of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) rallied in Kolkata on November 15 to observe “White Cane Day”. The programme scheduled for October 15 had to be postponed by a month owing to various difficulties. Though the afternoon was warm and there was an overcast sky with possibility of rain, these impediments did not deter the young and old who gathered there demanding road safety. Problems that disabled people face in commuting while walking on the streets, commuting in buses, trains and other modes of public transport do not make story anymore as these are common everyday experience for most of them. NPRD Convenor and General Secretary of the Sammelani, Shri Kanti Ganguly inaugurating the rally congratulated the visually challenged for assembling in such large numbers. He called upon them to be prepared for bigger struggles ahead. Shri Sailen Choudhury, President of the Paschim Banga Rajya Prathibandhi Sammelini spoke on seven point charter of demands. The demands highlighted at the rally were: 1. Police personnel, traffic police in particular, should be sensitised and trained in assisting pedestrians with visual disability. The right to access and safety of roads and all modes of public transport have to be ensured for all visually impaired persons 2. Disability issues should be part of the curriculum in schools and colleges to sensitise people from a young age. 3. Inclusion of disability in the curriculum of police training as well as administrative trainings. 4. Disabled commuters face severe problems while accessing both public and private vehicles – all those create such impediments problems should be given exemplary punishment. 5. All public vehicles should be made disabled friendly. 6. For benefit of visually disabled, auditory signs in the traffic signals must be installed. Subsequently, a delegation led by Shri Sailen Choudhury, President of the Sammelini, Shri Pankaj Kumar Das, the founder principal of Louis Braille Memorial School for the Sightless, a premier school for visually challenged persons and vice president of the Sammelini and others met the joint commissioner of Kolkata Police, Shri Supratim Sarkar and handed over a memorandum to him. He assured the delegation that the police department will take all possible measures to reduce the insecurity faced by the visually disabled during traveling. For a change, all along the route vehicles gave way for the disabled people, who otherwise feel helpless while crossing roads. However, the question remains whether the police will extend similar help when those who walked together today, walk out alone in the streets on their way to school/college/workplaces. Regular awareness programmes with police/administration/general public as well as transport operators can bring in the much needed change – which will enable these people to achieve right to “Personal Mobility” in future. *Anirban Mukherjee from Kolkata* Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
