Indore: For divyangs, city is unfriendly

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The cleanest city in the country for the last six years, Indore, sadly, is not divyang friendly. It has failed to ensure that divyangs enjoy a hassle-free approach to various government and other offices.

Free Press went around ascertaining how divyang-friendly is the city, and the results were not only shocking but also an eye-opener.

The majority of government institutions lack a barrier-free environment for divyangs in the city. As per the government scheme, all important government buildings should have ramps, rails, lifts, adaptation of toilets for wheelchair users, Braille signage and auditory signals, tactile flooring, etc.

The list of such unfriendly buildings for physically challenged persons includes some of the major institutions including the Indore Municipal Corporation office, General Post Office (GPO) and various departments of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV). These are some prominent institutions in the city which witnessed several divyangs’ footfalls daily.

Indore Municipal Corporation’s old building is devoid of ramp and lift facilities. However, a lift would be installed in some of the under-constructed buildings of the corporation, said an official.

The same is the case of the teaching institutes at the University Teaching Department (UTD) of DAVV includes, School of Commerce (SOC), School of Data Science and Foresting (SDFS), Institute of Management Studies (IMS) and the School of Computer Science & Information Technology (SCSIT) were also not built in a disable-friendly way, even the fact that all the teaching departments of the university had a quota for a person with a disability.

Meanwhile, when contacted university vice-chancellor Renu Jain said, “The infrastructure of the university was built way back and hence, amenities like ramp and lift were not installed in it”.

“But, the newly-constructed department does have a ramp for divyangs. Also, we have started conducting classes on the ground floors for the people with disability”, she said adding.

An officer at GPO, on condition of anonymity, claimed that the office had submitted an application to higher-ups for the construction of a ramp. Satyam Sharma, an employee of GPO sitting at an enquiry desk said, “The office has started providing services on the ground floor for people with disability to facilitate them instead of asking them to go to the first floor”.

Some government offices including collectorate, PWD office and IDA provide the facility of both ramps- as well as lifts for divyangs.

Inaccessible ramps

Ramps have been made and railings have been installed in some government offices and educational institutions but they are as bad as unusable. One may come across many such ramps on the UTD campus of DAVV, which are not constructed as per prescribed guidelines and are inaccessible.