hi avinash shahi i recommend to use facebook or twitter. we can brows
the particular news paper/ e media profile and can post on their wall.
On 28-02-2012 18:27, avinash shahi wrote:
Hi Mr Vamshi
I meant, not this, but in future many more like this pieces should be
published in the mainstream Newspapers and journals. But its not easy
to get published anyway! untill members from our own community hold
power to allowing publishing of such beauties.
On 2/28/12, Vamshi. G<gvamsh...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is this article published in the main stream society? I think it's
more important to publish pieces like this in the press, instead of
posting on fora like ours.
Since this is posted on a public forum, will any print media accept to
publish this?
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?
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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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with thanks and regards
Gufran ahmed.
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into
the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke
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