Is India prepared to welcome disable tourist from other
countries in its land? Does India have the infrastructure to accommodate
disabled tourists (e.g. people on wheelchairs, etc.)?
"For most people, accessibility makes things easier,
for people with disabilities, it makes things possible."
Rahul Sarawgi, one of the
directors of Ashoka holidays Pvt. Ltd.,
had gone all the way to Chennai from Jaipur for a day to personally receive his
special guest from Australia, a wheelchair-bound woman in her late fifties,
accompanied by her husband. They had come to India for a vacation. In India,
generally such people are home-bound and refrain from going out of the shelter
of their own homes, leave taking a vacation overseas. Only after Rahul had
returned from Chennai and was sharing his experience with me, it drew my attention
to the importance of accessible tourism,
a phrase used to describe suitable travelling conditions for persons with
disability (PWDs) and how important it is for us, as responsible citizens, to
think and care for this specially-abled people and their desire to be able to
see the world like other normal beings.
When I thought of writing
on this subject, the first thing I did was posting the question on Quora to
know what other people think of India as being disable friendly. It wasn’t
shocking to see the answers. One gentleman very clearly replied that disable
people should stay away from India. Upon research, I found that in India,
accessibility and inclusion of the disabled remains a challenge. While the
world has taken giant steps towards inclusion, India still has a lot of work to
do. Inclusion is a problem that needs urgent government action. The sad reality
in India is the lack of understanding and indifference. Bus-stands and railway
stations are almost impossible to access for the disabled. Visiting retail stores
and other public places like markets are still a nightmare for specially-abled
people. Even basic amenities like public toilets are unfriendly for these
people. Quite unnerved with the findings, I decided to further research on
this.
Problems likely to be encountered by Tourists with Reduced mobility/ Disability travelling in India:
But, in recent years,
some concerted efforts have been made to provide a better living environment
for persons with reduced mobility. Many inter-governmental agencies have
already enacted specific laws to enable their empowerment as well as to mediate
with the multi-faceted problems.
To my delight, many
establishments in the country are contributing towards making necessary changes
and are focussed on inclusion and accessibility for the disabled. Ramps,
elevators, hydraulic lifts and Braille signage are there to help these people. New
hotels are coming up with wide door and easy bathrooms. Some Airlines (E.g. Indigo)
have replaced the step-ladders with slanting ladders (aerobridge) or Forklift
Platforms for easy carriage of wheel-chairs. Recently, a non-governmental
organization (NGO) in Bangalore launched their new project KickStart Cabs on 28th
Nov 2013. The social enterprise provides taxi services that are designed to
provide personalized and accessible transport to those with any kind of
mobility restrictions and charges standard rates. Already
Indian organizations like Svayam, AccessAbility, and the Disability Rights
Initiative of the India Centre for Human Rights and Law, and Design for All –
India have done the initial preparation.
Ashoka holidays,
connects travellers with people from the local community in India in order to
offer detailed and specialised experiences and trip itinerary services. They
have some experience with accessible tourism and maybe able to help disabled
with their requirements. Ashoka holidays have also teamed up with many
likeminded organisations who deal with only such specialised tours arranging
disabled equipment, adapted excursions, transfers & assistance at ports.
They have identified certain places, hotels and sightseeing places that are
wheelchair friendly or equipped for disabled people and hence be able to advise
and provide travel assistance for the differently abled. “The wheelchair should
not be a limitation to carry out their tours and trips. Our wheelchair
accessible vacations in India are specially designed for travellers with
wheelchairs, slow walkers, their families and their friends. We have
hand-picked our accessible hotels that have wheelchair-friendly features like
doorways with a width of 70-90 cm, a slope rather than a step
separating the bathroom from the bedroom, a special bathroom layout so
wheelchairs may be manoeuvred easily, wheel-in
showers etc. for barrier free access plus our experienced guides are locally
trained and work effortless to ensure all goes well”, says Rahul Sarawgi of Ashoka holidays, who
also sensitized taxi drivers about how to interact with travellers with special
needs. “They (wheelchair-confined people) may not partake in adventure sports
but they should have the opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie at a campsite. At
Ashoka Holidays, we are focused on delivering a customer service tailored to
the individual needs of our clients. From guaranteed accessible room booking, arranging
adapted taxi transfers, to booking flights with airport assistance, our aim is
to take the stress out of organising a holiday for disabled people” Rahul
believes.
“With a potential market
of 500 million domestic tourists and ambitious projects underway to upgrade
train and air terminals India is poised to demonstrate world leadership in the
social inclusion of its own citizens by targeting the disability travel niche
if it follows the example of other countries and applies Universal Design in destination
development,” says Dr. Scott Rains publisher of the travel industry Rolling
Rains Report. Universal Design is a set of seven principles outlining,
according to Adaptive Environments, a framework for the design of places,
things, information, communication and policy to be usable by the widest range
of people operating in the widest range of situations without special or
separate design. Most simply, Universal Design is human-centred design of everything
with everyone in mind.
A few words of caution
are necessary when contemplating a journey to India. India is on its way
towards accessibility despite the scarcity of their resources, and the
tremendous challenges related to its infrastructure. Indian's have made a firm
decision to open their country to people with disabilities and our local hosts
have made huge efforts to provide the best service to people with disabilities.
An excerpt from one our
clients – “On route to Jaipur we stopped off at Fatehpur Sikri which is about
40km outside Agra and an abandoned city of the Mughal legacy. Our guide
accompanied us here and I was extremely glad he did as he was able to negotiate
with the guards on the gate (who were adamant we could go no further) for us to
take the car right up to the monument - otherwise it would have meant a bus
ride and it’s fair to say that the buses are by no means accessible.
However, once we drew up
outside the monument there was a very large parking notice stating that this
was parking for the “differently abled person”. It seems India has the same
issue often encountered back home where there are provisions made but people
don’t always know about them!”
Nonetheless, India is a
developing country and this is a rigorous trip. Tourists must be flexible and
willing to accept situations where access in India remains limited.
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