Situation is very grim there. I was reading in one of the papers published from New Zealands that blind are left to fend for themselves post the Saturday's tragic earthquake. Please anyone from Nepal on the list do revert. hundreds of blind people come to India for studies and jobs. I hope their families are also safe and sound.
NIRJANA SHARMA http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php/portal/printable_news.php?action=news_details&news_id=84903 KATHMANDU, : Believe it or not - an overwhelming majority of visually impaired people in Nepal are struggling with mobility just because they don´t have a white cane. Less than 3 percent of Nepal´s visually impaired people have access to white cane - a type of simple portable, foldable mobility tool. The National Census-2011 suggests that 96,000 visually impaired people in Nepal are completely blind, meaning that they require white sticks to walk around. However, a report prepared by the Nepal Association of the Blind (NAB) claims that only 2,500 visually impaired people have access to the white cane. White canes are not expensive but not easily found in business stores. Difficulty in finding them has deprived the needy of their rights to mobility, according to Amrit Rai, the NAB director. Local traders do not give priority to importing white canes, which are easily available in neighboring countries such as India and China, complained Rai. In Nepal, the NAB distributes white canes -- provided by the government or other NGOs -- to visually impaired people. "We sell it as per the demand and availability," said Rai. "They just need to pay Rs 700 for each stick." The government, on the other hand, remains indifferent. Ram Prasad Bhattarai, assistant spokesperson for the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW), said that the government is not aware about the need of visually impaired people. "They have never approached us for white canes," said Bhattarai. "We could do something if the come up with their demands." Meanwhile, on the occasion of World White Cane Safety Day on Wednesday, Dinesh Thapa, a philanthropist, announced to distribute the mobility tools to the needy people. "Thapa has already distributed 100 white canes in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Dhading and Parbat districts. He has promised to provide 3,000 visually impaired with portable canes in the next couple of years," said Rai. Caption:Visually impaired people's shadows are seen as they participate in a rally marking World White Cane Safety Day in Kathmandu, Wednesday.(Keshab Thoker/Republica) Beside increasing visually impaired people´s access to white canes, campaigners of disabled-friendly public transport infrastructures have also urged the Department of Roads (DoR) to install sound-indicating traffic lights on streets. As of now, only Putalisadak area has such facility. "As the traffic light goes green, pedestrians also hear faster beeps. It alerts them to cross the road whereas the slow beeps indicate that one must stop and wait," said Sushil Adhikari of Bright Star Society, an NGO working for the rights of the visually impaired people. The NAB, along with other organizations working for welfare of the blind, has urged the government to install such traffic signals at various busy roads of the Kathmandu valley where overhead bridges are unavailable. The visually impaired people want the DoR to install disabled-friendly traffic signals at Chabahil, Sukedhara, Kupondol, in front of Patan Hospital and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Kathmandu. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] 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 Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
