Disabled Unfriendly Indian Government

Look at the photographs of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus stops and tell me your opinion on the Delhi Government’s concern for people with disability (no PC for me like Differently abled).

I want to direct you to the top left corner of the long strip of the board at the roadside edge of the stop. You see the conventional sign for the disabled, the wheelchair.

It is my mistake that I did not ask the tricycle riding person whether he would have felt welcome, comfortable and safe at that bus stop had he been in a wheel chair. But, I tend to think the answer would have been an emphatic NO. The other bus stop, Rail Bhawan Metro Station – please discount the fact of misinformation that there is no Rail Bhawan Metro Station! – does look better, but only till you notice the large advertising board obstructing wheel chair movement -  nandi sitting smack in the line of sight of the Lord in Siva temples in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka.

This, the unfriendly attitude of the Delhi Government, sets the stage for the rest of this post, to scale up to India-wide insensitivity.

In the interest of full disclosure: my wife suffers from Retinitis pigmentosa, a fancy way of saying that at the advanced stage of her condition, she enjoys perhaps 2% of normal visibility; less fancifully, she is blind. And, over the past 10 years or so, only I know how aware I have become of the regular needs of the disabled (by the way, by another metric, I too am disabled – deaf in one ear), not only of blind but people of any type of disability. I have shamelessly used the window her condition afforded me to see a wider vista of the real world.

These are the images below:

True, we hardly use coins of 1 or 2 rupees denomination. Even five rupee coins are going out of fashion – flag down in rickshaws in my neighborhood is Rs. 10. But, tollgates between Delhi and Jaipur ask shamelessly for Rs. 43/-, Rs. 27/- and such curious, incongruous amounts! True, though, no blind person will be driving her car on these roads. But, what about Delhi Metro where the fare jumps in increments of one rupee? You definitely need to use 1 Re., 2 Rs., and 5 Rs. coins. Now, it is becoming more common that you get your fingers on 10 Rs. coins rather than Rs. 10/- currency notes.

Yes, fingers on, fingers around …

I know that blind people may gain a heightened tactile or auditory sense, compensating to whatever extent their blindness. Look at the old 1 Re. coin and the new 2 Rs. coin, the top most photograph. I have had rickshaw pullers peering at the coins to figure out whether they are being stiffed 1 Re. Discount the reliefs on the coins, which anyway fade too fast for any utility after the first use. Is there any tactile value, any differentiator, size (diameter), edges (patterns; remember the old 2 Rs. coin, please) between them? That was a rhetorical question. So, the Indian Government does not care about blind people.

I was in a mood to do some more comparative study. The second picture juxtaposes the new 1 Re. coin, the old 1 Re. coin and the old 2.Rs. coin. I will leave it up to you to do the comparison.

Now, I take you up the hierarchy. The new 1 Re. coin and the new 5 Rs. coin. The weight difference between the coins two denominations has more or less vanished and so also the size difference. Now, imagine differentiating between the two, while holding a bag of 1 kilo of potato in the other hand. This is the insensitivity of the Indian Government, coming in at 9 on a scale of 1-10.

Further up, the old 2 Rs. coin and the new 10 Rs. coin. Need I say more? By the way, all the coins in the photographs came from my wallet. They are very much in use.

I understand that at the rate at which the Indian currency is depreciating (economists may find it more comforting to mention inflation), the government needs to cut its cost in minting coins. But, it could have used its brains and introduced tactile differentiators.

Remember the old 5 paise coin (I suspect Apple came up with its patented square icon with rounded corners after seeing those!). What about the old, currently-not-in-use 2 Rs. coin with a wavy edge? 

Earlier I had highlighted the words “regular needs” of disabled people. This was done most advisedly, indeed purposefully. All of us in society are morally bound to acknowledge the needs of any individual as his or her “regular needs” and not as things special. There can be no differentiators in identifying the needs of people, every single one of us. If my need to move the furniture in the house is regular, my wife’s need to be informed is equally regular. Indeed, it will be more regular for both of us, if I let her move the furniture (with the added benefit, to me, of less physical exertion!)

But, there is a place for differentiators, like tactile cues for the blind. These cues need not be confined to the platform edges of metro stations. These must find their way into men's wallets and ladies' purses. The attitude of treating the disabled as normal within the paradigm of concern for everyone and empathy towards all must extend to the “disabled friendly” bus stops.

DTC advertised that it is not sensitive enough in its new bus stops, ironically to tell the world that it is, during the Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi. The Indian government is following in its footsteps (or, roll of the tyres of DTC buses) in the case of coins.

Then, am I or am I not right in claiming that the Indian Government in insensitivity personified in treating some of its citizens as not full citizens, not enable them to participate more fully in the life of the nation?

This is the claim of the title.

Raghuram Ekambaram