Govt needs to be sensitive to the disabled: HC

New Delhi, Feb. 13: The Delhi high court on said it would “not tolerate exclusion” of any section of society from accessing public facilities and directed the Centre, Delhi government and local bodies to be more sensitive to the needs of persons with disabilities.

The observations by a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar came during the hearing of a PIL that claimed that most public facilities in the capital were not disabled friendly.

During the hearing, Delhi police said that 22 of its new police stations were completely disabled friendly. The submission was made by Delhi government’s additional standing counsel Naushad Ahmed Khan.

Not accepting the claim, the bench asked if the lock- ups in the new police stations had disabled friendly toilets for the accused.

“Does Tihar have any disabled friendly toilets,” the court asked and told the police that its stations have to be disabled friendly not just for complainants, but also for the accused.

“We cannot tolerate any exclusion on any account. No exclusion at all on the basis of caste or colour or creed or any other criteria,” the bench said, adding that even juvenile homes, observation homes for the aged and women and other such establishments also need to be disabled friendly.

The court termed as “unacceptable” the lack of access to public parks by the disabled and aged persons due to the narrow entry points and directed the authorities to take steps to rectify the deficiency.

The corporations were also asked to take up one or more areas in their jurisdiction as pilot projects to make them disabled friendly.

While issuing the directions, the court noted that there was also “a complete lack of sensitisation” of government officials on issues affecting persons with disabilities.

The bench said while making buildings and parks disabled friendly, it was essential for the local authorities to train their officials to be sensitive to needs of the disabled.

To achieve this, the court ordered holding of a meeting of architectural and engineering divisions of all authorities to make a training module to sensitise officials on the issues affecting disabled persons.

The court also directed that the said module and the manner and time line in which it would implemented should be placed before the bench on the next date of hearing on March 21.