Accessible India Campaign

Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) launched Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) as a nation-wide Campaign for achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) on December 3, 2015. 

Rights of Persons with Disabilities

For Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) universal accessibility is critical for enabling them to gain access for equal opportunity and live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life in an inclusive society.

Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995

Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 under Sections 44, 45 and 46 categorically provides for non-discrimination in transport, non-discrimination on the road and non-discrimination in built environment respectively.

As per Section 46 of the PwD Act, the States are required to provide for –

1. Ramps in  public buildings;
2. Adaptation of toilets for wheel chair users;
3. Braille symbols and auditory signals in elevators or lifts;
4. Ramps in hospitals, primary health centres and other medical care and rehabilitation institutions

Section 44 and 45 of the said Act cast responsibility on the States to take measures to make public transport accessible for PwDs and also make provision for auditory signals at red lights in public roads, curb cuts and slops in pavements, engraving on the surface at zebra crossings etc.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which India is a signatory, under Article 9 casts an obligation on all the signatory governments to take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. These measures, which shall include the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility, shall apply to, inter-alia :

• Buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, housing, medical facilities and workplaces;
• Information, communications and other services, including electronic services and emergency services.

The Convention also mandates that all the Governments shall also take appropriate measures :

1. To develop, promulgate and monitor the implementation of minimum standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services open or provided to the public;
2. To ensure that private entities that offer facilities and services which are open or provided to the public take into account all aspects of accessibility for persons with disabilities;
3. To provide training for stakeholders on accessibility issues facing persons with disabilities;
4. To provide in buildings and other facilities open to the public signage in Braille and in easy to read and understand forms;
5. To provide forms of live assistance and intermediaries, including guidelines, readers and professional sign language interpreters, to facilitate accessibility to buildings and other facilities open to the public;
6. To promote other appropriate forms of assistance and support to persons with disabilities to ensure their access to information;
7. To promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet;

Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for PwDs in Asia and Pacific

Governments at the High Level Inter Governmental Meeting organized by the Govt. of Republic of Korea adopted the ministerial declaration and Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for PwDs in Asia and Pacific.  The Incheon Strategy provides the Asian and Pacific Region, and the world the first set of regionally agreed distinct – inclusive development goals.

The Strategy comprises 10 goals, 27 targets and 62 indicators, which build on UNCRPD.  Goal No. 3 of the Incheon Strategy mentions that access to the physical environment, public transportation, knowledge, information and communication is a precondition for persons with disabilities to fulfill their rights in an inclusive society.  The accessibility of urban, rural and remote areas based on universal design increases safety and ease of use not only for persons with disabilities, but also for all other members of society.  Access audits are an important means of ensuring accessibility and must cover all stages of the process of planning, design, construction, maintenance and monitoring and evaluation.  Access to assistive devices and related support services is also a precondition for persons with disabilities to optimize their level of independence in daily life and live in dignity.  Ensuring the availability of assistive devices for those living in low-resource settings involves encouraging research, development, production, distribution and maintenance.

Objectives of Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan)

• Enhancing the proportion of accessible government buildings 
• Enhancing proportion of accessible airports 
• Enhancing the proportion of accessible railway stations 
• Enhancing the proportion of accessible Public Transport 
• Enhancing proportion of accessible and usable public documents and websites that meet internationally recognized accessibility standards  
• Enhancing the pool of sign language interpreters 
• Enhancing the proportion of daily captioning and sign-language interpretation of public television news programmes 

Components of Accessible India Campaign

Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) has the following three important components

1. Built Environment Accessibility
2. Transportation System Accessibility
3. Information and Communication Eco-System Accessibility

Strategies to be followed

A multi-pronged strategy will be adopted for the campaign with key components as (a) leadership endorsements of the campaign, (b) mass awareness, (c) capacity building through workshops, (d) interventions (legal frame-work, technology solutions, resource generation, etc. and (e) leverage corporate sector efforts in a Public-Private Partnership.

Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities will sign MOU with State to support spreading awareness about accessibility and help create accessible buildings, accessible transport and accessible websites etc.

Proposed milestones

Under the campaign,

• Conducting accessibility audit of at least 25-50 most important government buildings and converting them into fully accessible buildings in the selected 50 cities by  March 2024
• Converting 50% of all the government buildings of National Capital and all the State capitals into fully accessible buildings by March 2024
• Conducting audit of 50% of government buildings and converting them into fully accessible buildings in 10 most important cities / towns of all the States (other than those, which are already covered in Target 1.1 and 1.2 above) by March 2024
• Conducting accessibility audit of all the international airports and converting them into fully accessible international airports by March 2024.
• Conducting accessibility audit of all the domestic airports and converting them into fully accessible airports by March 2024.
• Ensuring that A1,A & B categories of railway stations in the country are converted into fully accessible railway stations by March 2024.
• Ensuring that 50% of railway stations in the country are converted into fully accessible railway stations by March 2024.
• Ensuring that 25% of Government owned public transport carriers in the country are converted into fully accessible carriers by March 2024.
• At least 50% of Central and State Government websites are to meet accessibility standards
• Sign Language Interpreters Training and Developing 200 additional sign language interpreters
• Developing and adoption of national standards on captioning and sign-language interpretation in consultation with National media authorities 
• Ensuring that 25% of all public television programmes aired by government channels meet these standards

Source : - Accessible India Campaign