Hospitals inaccessible for persons with disabilities in India Asia-Pacific Jun 24, 2013 Prasanna Kumar Pincha, Central government’s Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities says hospitals have to be barrier-free for persons with disabilities. But the concept is relatively new and it might take some time for the idea to sink in with the people who are in charge. People with vision disabilities since birth, Pincha is the first person with a disability to hold this post. Excerpts from an interview with Shiv Sunny: After your intervention, Medical Council of India issued a letter to all medical institutions to send a compliance While there is no explicitly mandatory provision for access audit in the existing People with Disabilities Act, I would like to express optimism that the access scenario should change and will change with efflux of time. In order for legislation of this ilk to get implemented in letter and spirit, it is important to have distinct mechanisms for fixation of responsibility and accountability for non-compliance. Because of lack of persons with disabilities in the access audits of hospitals and medical institutes, constructions are not being made as per norms. No definitive information or data in respect of non-inclusion of persons with disabilities in the access audits is available with my office. The fact of the matter is that to the extent possible, inclusion of persons with disabilities should be made non-negotiable. However, anyone with a sane and sensible head over his shoulders is bound to favor the idea of taking on board persons with disabilities, or for that matter, the expertise of lived experience of disabilities. Will inclusion of ‘disability studies’ in the medical curriculum help break attitudinal barriers? I have consistently maintained that breaking of attitudinal barriers must precede the breaking of other barriers. The fact is that other barriers will get dismantled in a phased manner over a period of time if attitudinal barriers break. Yes, inclusion of ‘disability studies’ in the medical curriculum will be an important step in the direction of changing attitudinal barriers in the future doctors, and will make them more aware of visible and invisible disabilities. The Rehabilitation Council of India is doing its best to include disability module in medical curriculum Most of the hospital websites are still inaccessible to persons with disabilities. To my mind this is a larger issue. It’s not just the hospital websites but most other websites are yet to be made accessible for persons with disabilities. My office, the Department of Disability Affairs, Government of India and other authorities continue to make relentless efforts to make all government websites accessible. The Department of Disability Affairs, Govt. of India’s scheme for providing financial assistance for this purpose is a case in point. How practically possible is a completely barrier-free environment in hospitals? The hospitals have to be barrier-free. To a large extent, efforts are made to incorporate barrier-free features in hospitals as I observe. However, the concept being relatively new, it does take a little time for the concerned people to internalize the idea and to implement the relevant laws. This task also requires construction, retrofitting and, of course, resources. Why can’t we include more persons with disabilities in policy matters? Of course we can. The active involvement of persons with disabilities and also of organizations working in the disability sector in putting together the draft of a new legislation which will replace the existing Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 is a case in point. Besides, two Deputy Commissioners for persons with disabilities in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively happen to be persons with disabilities. Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat also had persons with disabilities as State Commissioners for persons with disabilities . Therefore, slowly but surely inclusion in that sense is happening. Source: Deccan Herald
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 08:05:51 +0000
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