Lack of accessibility in public places, public transport, etc continues to be a dream for disabled people
Most of us blame ourselves when we fail somewhere, at some point in our life. But people who are paralyzed are leading a life full of immense misery throughout their life.
According to Dr. Mariya Biju, who is being paralyzed following an accident and now works at Al Azhar Medical College hospital, Thodupuzha in Kerala says “ Even though there are a lot of people to help, accessibility in public places, restaurants, movie theatres, public transport is always an issue for the disabled persons.”
As per the 2011 survey, around 2.68 crore people are disabled out of the 121 crore population in India. In foreign countries, there are facilities for disabled people, but that is not the case in India. Here we can only see very few disabled-friendly facilities. There are no proper comfort stations and no ramps for disabled people in most parts of the country.
“Most people are seeing as with the eyes of empathy and sympathy. We don’t need their sympathy. It is so disgusting to talk to the people who see us only through the eyes of sympathy. We are also normal people like others says Ambika, who is now a teacher at a government school in Kottayam.
Most disabled people live with the support of their family, friends, and colleagues. But what next, what will be the future concern most of the disabled persons.
“ People think that a person with a disability cannot have a better bride /groom other than a disabled one. By doing so, there is a high chance to affect the mental health of these people. So, we started an NGO only for the disabled one. We will take care of all the disabled people throughout their life says Dr. K.Usha, one of the founding members of SRDA (Society for Rehabilitation of the Differently Abled) in Thiruvananthapuram.
Even though society and the attitude of the people toward the disabled have changed a lot. Now the government is providing facilities for disabled persons in the state. Now some buses are accessible to wheelchair users, and many restaurants, malls, government offices, other private offices, etc are also providing facilities for the disabled. But most of these facilities are in the urban areas of the state and people from rural regions are not having these facilities.