World Disability Day: Those who live with it urge to act beyond rhetoric

Before anything,a physically challenged person wants a little sensitivity from the common man.

Gurbir Singh Kochar (57),affected with muscular dystrophy,is wheel chair-bound for over a decade. And he feels “sensitivity towards the physically challenged is awfully lacking in our society”.

“Unlike the West,where special care is taken,no one bothers here. And this callous attitude is reflected everywhere in the city,” Kochar,the president of the Muscular Dystrophy Association,Chandigarh,says.

But the problem will not end with sensitivity,he adds,a fair bit of thought has to go in planning buildings and public places. “Most of the showrooms have stairs. A wheel chair-bound cannot go there,” Kochar says. “The public transport system is not accessible to a person on wheel chair and the restaurants and parks are out of bounds.”

For Garima Seth,a physically challenged student,“denial of accessibility is most annoying”. “Most colleges and several blocks in the Panjab University don’t have ramps for the disabled. This is the basic thing,” Seth rues.