About N.C.P.E.D.P. > Achievements

The Hawking effect

Professor Stephen Hawking's desire to visit historical monuments raises the critical issue of access for disabled people.

Stephen Hawking, the 21st century Einstein and his little wish to feel the spirit of India through a visit to the Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humanyun's Tomb and the Jantar Mantar, sent the officials scurrying for provisions to make it possible. Special provisions to simply visit a historical monument! Hawking, affected with a motor-neuron disease needed ramps to help easy access to these places.

How many of us have given even a fleeting thought to the inconvenience of the disabled in the public places in our country? How many of us have seen them shopping or visiting theatres and cinema halls or places of worship, leave alone monuments?

It is indeed a matter of grave concern that it is not disability that makes life tough but our own insensitive attitude coupled with a pathetic support structure that deems it fit to label people with disabilities as pitiful rather than help them lead normal lives on their own. It takes a Hawking to visit our country as a distinguished guest to jolt the administration.

The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 clearly states the following:

Clause 44: Establishments in the transport sector shall take special measures to:

  1. adapt rail compartments, buses, vessels and aircrafts in such a way as to permit easy access to such persons;
  2. adapt toilets in rail compartments, vessels, aircrafts and waiting rooms in such a way as to permit the wheelchair users to use them conveniently.

Clause 46: The appropriate Governments and local authorities shall provide for:

  1. ramps in public buildings;
  2. adaptation of toilets for wheelchair users;
  3. braille symbols and auditory signals in elevators or lifts;
  4. ramps in hospitals, primary health centres and other medical care and rehabilitation institutions.

Five years after the Act was passed, accessibility still remains an issue to grapple with. In resolving it, N.C.P.E.D.P. with its special task force came to the front with Javed Abidi, executive director, heading the battlefield. “Is it not glaring that not a single post-office or the Income Tax office or any library or educational institution has been made accessible so far?” questions Abidi.

The controversy

Stephen Hawking's visit proved a big challenge for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the city government who were faced with the problem of making routes and entry points to the monuments absolutely obstacle free. His visit also caused embarrassment to the authorities, who had no option but to provide temporary ramps to the honoured guest. That was when the N.C.P.E.D.P.:

  1. Arranged for the Capital's only vehicle equipped with a hydraulic lift, (owned by Akshay Pratishthan) to enable the Cambridge professor to move easily;
  2. Looked into the environmental barrier aspects of the monuments; and
  3. Came up with concrete suggestions on how temporary access could be provided.

Javed Abidi in his letter to the Delhi Government, the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi urged provisions for easy access in the places to be visited by Hawking asking them to arrange for wooden ramps overnight.

The A.S.I. with its apathy could barely grasp the importance of the entire issue. It stated that:

  1. It did not know who Dr. Stephen Hawking was.
  2. It had no knowledge of the visit of the scientist, nor of his desire to visit any site.
  3. It could not allow a temporary wooden ramp in any of the places with steps at entry points.
  4. It could arrange for four or five people to bodily lift the scientist wherever he wanted to go (on being informed that Hawking was a great scientist).

The issue finally but temporarily resolved put a smile on the faces of the many who despite being in Delhi for ages had never put foot onto these historical sites. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment issued instructions to the Institute for Physically Handicapped (I.P.H.) to construct ramps at historical venues and asked the Archaeological Survey of India to extend all possible help to the I.P.H. in the construction.

But the ramps were temporary. Why?