Indian monuments to be disabled-friendly - Fusion - WeRIndia

A new initiative by the culture and the social justice and empowerment ministries will soon make it easy for differently-abled visitors of prominent tourist places to access monument and artefacts without any discomfort.

This initiative will cover 50 prominent monuments and make them disabled-friendly soon. Disabled-friendly facilities include wheelchairs, disabled-friendly toilets, Braille signages, tactile floors or pathways, railings and ramps.

The initiative will be done by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) and the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) together.

According to a ministry official, the initiative will be done in a phase manner all over the nation. The project needs to comply with the security provisions in several places too.

Some prominent railways stations might also be covered. Furthermore, solar panels at some prominent monuments might also be installed soon to generate electricity for these monuments.

Since the last few years, the ASI was planning on making several monuments accessibility disabled-friendly. They have already improved the Taj Mahal, Tipu Sultan’s Palace, Fatehpur Sikri, Aga Khan Palace, Ajanta and Ellora Caves.

Differently-abled activist, Pt Vikas Sharma, chairman of Disabled Helpline India approached the culture minister, Mahesh Sharma, after a recee visit to Jageshwar in Nainital. India has more than 50 lakh disabled people in India. According to Indian Census data, 3-4 percent of India’s population are differently abled. However, the data from the World Health Organization puts that number over 9 percent.

Sharma says that, after routine checks in various tourist and public places, he found various problems for differently abled people. He says that there were steep stairs in Jageshwar temple at Almora. However, there is no provision for differently-abled people.

Some of the monuments that the ministry is trying to cover will be Buddhist monuments – Sanchi, Champaner monuments – Champaner, Elephenta Caves — Gehra Surgad, Ranthambor Fort – Ranthambor, Chittaurgarh Fort – Chittaurgarh, Leh Palace – Leh, Sarnath – Varanasi, Rang Ghar – Sibsagar, St Francis Church – Cochin, Golconda Fort – Hyderabad.

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