Excellent observation, Madam!
On 2/28/12, avinash shahi <shahi88avin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Spot on!
> Written from the core of heart and mind both.
> Thank you Shruti for sharing with us.
> Hats off to Shampa Sengupta lady activist.
> We need more such writings in mainstream to brodden our movement and
> open well of people's eyes.
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2/28/12, Sruti disAbility Rights Centre <sruti.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> This article is written by Shampa Sengupta, a Kolkata based activist
>> working on gender and disability issues. As Indian disability sector is
>> upset with several cases of discrimination faced by disabled passengers in
>> the air, she ponders whether as activists the issues of masses are being
>> overlooked which makes the movement more for the selected few.
>>
>>
>> All of us who work for disability rights were enraged at the news of
>> treatment meted out to fellow activist Jeeja Ghosh by Spicejet Airlines
>> when she was flying to attend an International seminar from Kolkata to
>> Goa.
>> Media played a vital role and gave ample coverage to the incident
>> screaming
>> loud that such behaviour with disabled passengers is totally unbecoming.
>> In solidarity, different groups came together to organise a protest
>> meeting
>> in Jeeja’s own city Kolkata. National level rights based groups raised hue
>> and cry. And for a change, to our satisfaction, we came to know that our
>> newly appointed Chief Commissioner of Disabilities of India took suo-motu
>> action and issued a show-cause notice based on media reports to the
>> concerned airlines.
>>
>> However the question here is not that of one Jeeja Ghosh or one specific
>> airline. We all know of similar cases in past. Some of them got media
>> coverage and some of them did not get any. When activists face these
>> kinds
>> of situations, they raise their voices. Some of these make news headlines,
>> some do not. However, large numbers of cases remain unreported. So one
>> does not feel surprised when within few days of Jeeja Ghosh incident,
>> another disabled activist Anjlee Agarwal faces humiliation while flying
>> from Delhi to Raipur. We are aware that these experiences are part of
>> lives of disabled people. We are proud that Jeeja and Anjlee have the
>> guts
>> to put up the fight. The disability sector of India has also started
>> looking at civil aviation policies and rules once again, started
>> discussing
>> and demanding changes that should be incorporated. It is ironical that
>> both
>> Jeeja and Anjlee work for including disability in mainstream with one of
>> them focusing on accessible environment. It is humiliating and painful
>> for
>> any disabled person to face this while travelling by air.
>>
>> But a greater irony is the fact that we are forgetting the large number of
>> disabled population who face harassment in travelling by any mode of
>> transport on a regular basis. And here I am not talking about physical
>> accessibility of buses, metro, trains, trams or any other public
>> transport.
>> I am talking about the attitudinal barriers they face when they try to use
>> public transport. It is important to remember here that thousands of
>> disabled people in India do not even dream of boarding an aircraft in
>> their
>> life-time. One does not have to be an activist to know that poverty and
>> disability go hand in hand. While most of us spending our time in thinking
>> of making “skies” inclusive, let us give some time to make the ground
>> below
>> our feet more inclusive.
>>
>> Endless cases are heard about attitudinal barriers disabled people face
>> while travelling in a bus. Only once we could make it to a newspaper
>> headlines. Bidyut Dey, a 50 yr old man with amputed leg was thrown out of
>> a
>> Government bus as he said he has the right to travel without tickets. Dey
>> himself a West Bengal Government employee is an organiser of sports of
>> disabled people. He travels all over India with a cricket team comprising
>> of disabled youngsters. He refused to let this incident go unreported and
>> lodged a FIR and followed up the case regularly. That he was ridiculed by
>> Police for making such trivia a case, and the Magistrate who was listening
>> to his case was shocked to find that a man can refuse to buy tickets while
>> travelling and say that this is his right, is another story. Neither the
>> Police officer nor the magistrate was even aware of a law called Persons
>> with Disabilities Act after 12 years of enactment. These are the facts we
>> have learnt to accept. Like we have accepted that problems in daily
>> commuting is not a big issue.
>>
>> I still remember when Jeeja and I were co-workers in the same project, she
>> faced similar harassment while travelling in a mini-bus. Jeeja being the
>> fighter did not let it go, she made a formal complaint to the Bus Workers
>> Union and was given a formal apology. But such instances of resistance
>> remains isolated cases and on a whole disability sector never made a
>> consolidated effort to make this a priority issue.
>>
>> When on 3rd December 2011, a group of 10 blind people were not allowed to
>> board a bus. They were not allowed as the conductor felt that there are
>> two
>> reserved seats in a bus marked “handicapped” and anyway blind people will
>> not pay bus tickets, so he is not obliged to give them a ride. These
>> people
>> were coming to join a Rally organised for World Disability Day organised
>> by
>> West Bengal’s largest disability network Paschim Banga Rajya Pratibandhi
>> Sammilani. When political activists are barred from joining rallies or
>> meetings, it becomes “headlines”. But such infringement of right to join a
>> Rally by disabled people was given a miss by all media houses despite this
>> rally being covered by press.
>>
>> People who have invisible disability suffer other kinds of harassment in
>> the buses. As Joyeeta Ganguly, another colleague narrated to me what is a
>> common experience for her. She has 100 % hearing impairment, but very
>> often
>> conductors believe that she is entitled to “handicapped” seat or free bus
>> ride. Carrying disability certificate and showing it when required does
>> not
>> always help. Often conductors believe that she is acting to be disabled to
>> get away with a free ride. I am not even trying to include experiences of
>> people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities in this article. A
>> complete thesis can be written on those experiences.
>>
>> We have also seen several meetings demonstrations and demands regarding
>> making Railways accessible to all. Demands to make buses and
>> bus-terminuses
>> disabled friendly are also not unheard of. There is a need to think of
>> making bus drivers and conductors sensitive towards the issue of
>> disability. An organisation called National Institute of Professionals
>> who
>> run computer classes for the blind tried to make an innovative effort
>> towards the same. For the last two years they used the occasion of Raksha
>> Bandhan to do so. On this occasion, rakhis are tied on the hands of bus
>> conductors/ drivers at a central Kolkata Bus depot by disabled girls. Thus
>> a very popular religious and social festival is used as a platform to
>> start
>> a bonding of friendship between disabled and those who are not. Being
>> personally present on both these occasions, I saw a visibly touched bus
>> –conductor grabbing a mike and announce that from today he will make extra
>> effort to take care of disabled passengers. There are reasons to believe
>> that these kinds of sensitization programmes can have far reaching effects
>> where a seminar or a workshop cannot reach.
>>
>> However the onus on mass awareness campaign cannot lie in the hands of
>> NGOs. Article 8 of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
>> Disabilities
>> to which India is a signatory mandates the state parties to adopt
>> immediate, effective and appropriate measures to raise awareness
>> throughout
>> society. There are provisions of awareness raising in both Persons with
>> Disabilities Act and the National Trust Act. The draft Country report
>> “poised For Change” gives us some ideas on kinds of activities taken up by
>> the Government agencies on awareness. Unfortunately, most of the
>> programmes
>> seem to be addressed to talking to those who are already converted. The
>> National Trust website says that they have spend Rs. 80.01 lakhs in the
>> year 2010-11. Its flagship awareness programme Badhte Kadam 2011’s budget
>> was almost 50% less than the same programme of 2010. If non-disabled
>> community is not sensitised then the dream of building an inclusive world
>> will remain a distant dream.
>>
>> Yes it is important to document the cases of discrimination faced by
>> disabled people in airline travels. It is important to review the existing
>> civil aviation rules and policies and to punish the offenders in such
>> cases. But should we not prioritise our work so that we can bring the poor
>> and marginalised disabled population within the arena of rights? If we
>> leave behind the mass and try to take off to make the sky inclusive, will
>> we be able to navigate the disability rights movement towards right
>> direction?
>>
>> Search for old postings at:
>> http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> "The best things and most beautiful things in the world Cannot be seen
> or even touched. They must be felt within the heart." — Helen Keller
>
> Avinash Shahi
> M.A. Political Science
> CPS JNU
> New Delhi India
>
>
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Thanks and regards
Himanshu Sahu
Reach: 09051055000
Skype: himanshu.cute4u
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