Friends, The day before yesterday, a colleague of ours along with his wife had gone to a market near their house in North Delhi. Both are visually impaired and the lighting on the road was poor and the wife slipped and fell into a pit on the way and was badly hurt.
Now pits, open man holes and all kinds of such obstacles are not very uncommon in a country like ours where the civic administration is totally inefficient, corrupt and insensitive. All of us who are visually impaired in this country have to thank God that we have not fallen into any of these traps as yet that are waiting for us in our cities while going about our daily lives. We are called upon to be independent and mobile. I wonder how this is possible when the environment around us is unsafe and inaccessible. This apart, a few years ago I was visiting an old building in Central Delhi and while climbing the stairs, I found uncovered electric wires hanging loosely on the sides of the staircase. A blind person could easily touched these wires. Wonder what the city authorities would have said then. I have encountered such staircases in Mumbai too. Another safety hazard for us blind people are the stray dogs and monkeys that boldly roam the streets these days. Shouldn't we do something about this? I think it is time we raised our voices against this. People have to realise that open man holes uncovered pits, untidy footpaths, uncovered electric wires, stray animals and the like are unsafe for all concerned. We should not be waiting for an accident to take place before taking any action. People interested in joining us in filing a PIL in this regard, please write to us privately at advoc...@eyeway.org We have to make our cities safer for each of us. Look forward to hearing from you! George George Abraham CEO Score Foundation 17/107, LGF Vikram Vihar, Lajpatnagar 4 New Delhi 110024 PH:91 11 26472581, 91 11 46070396 Mob: 91 9810934040, 91 9810001181 Email: geo...@eyeway.org Skype: georgeabraham13 Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
