BENGALURU: Swachh Bengaluru is woefully short of disabled-friendly toilets. A quick survey of busy spots, across the city, found that most did not have such a facility.
The few disabled-friendly toilets were locked away or badly maintained. Ramps and railings were missing in most places and we were not able to spot even one braille signage.
Even in Metro stations, which are relatively more accessible, the signages fail the visually impaired. Anyone would need the help of the staff for guidance, though they are obliging and polite.
Janardhan, who is part of the state- and district-level Accessibility Audit Committees at the Association of People with Disability (APD), said that only 5 to 10 per cent of the city is disabled-friendly.
Shockingly, he says, none of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s offices are.
“That is the reply they gave to our RTI query,” he said. The committee does quarterly reviews of private and public buildings.
“Almost 95 per cent of the toilets in the city are not disabled-friendly,” said V S Basavaraj, executive director at APD. “Even the urinals are not.”
He said that they have been bringing it to the notice of the BBMP off and on but there is little engagement from their side.
“Mostly, it is lack of awareness that is the reason for such a situation. The officials don’t seem to have any idea about the needs of people with disabilities. And they show no inclination towards righting that,” he said. “We keep holding workshops and no one from the BBMP Engineering Department ever shows up.”
According to Sections 44 to 46 of the Persons with Disability Act, 1995, the government and local authorities are required to ensure there are accessible facilities. However, according to Basavaraj, most often the authorities hide behind the clause ‘within the limits of their economic capacity’. “They simply say such facilities are not economically feasible.”
However, Janardhan said that there has been improvement in some of the government buildings. He cited Vidhana Soudha, Press Club, High Court, Legislative House and Vikasa Soudha as examples.
According to him, Bengaluru Metro tops other cities in this regard. “Before launching services from any terminal, they call us for an audit,” he said.
However, the Metro station on Church Street did not have a working toilet for the disabled. The staff said it was flooded and, therefore, locked up.
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