*Govt plans religious yatra scheme for disabled* ------------------------------ Times of India, 31st october 2022
*Subodh Ghildiyal* *TNN* *New Delhi : *In a move to make pilgrimages disabled-friendly, the government is considering a scheme to provide ‘end-toend’ support to physically challenged tourists visiting religious sites. Likely to be called ‘Sugam Teerth’, the scheme will be designed to help disabled tourists from the start to the end ofavisit to a pilgrimage. A platform will be created for registration of individuals, which will set in motion dissemination of information about the person down to the religious site to be visited. While the bus station or the railway station where the tourist will disembark will have the support system to transport the person to the destination, it will also book tourists rooms in hotels fortheir stay. The religious places will be equipped with infrastructure to help individuals go through with the prayers. Sources said 70% of physically challenged persons have hearing problem, while 10% are visually handicapped. Keeping this data in view, the plan for erecting special infrastructure down the chain — like Braille for registration, tactile flooring (which haveembossed tops to guide the visually challenged), audio tapes to recount history of the place or directions, helpers to aid performing religious duties, sign language interpreters and guides, as also ramps and wheelchairs — will be drawn up. Sources said the initial phase may only include around 22 sites. Based on footfalls, the sites covered will largely be Hindu temples. -- 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.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to accessindia+unsubscr...@accessindia.org.in. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/CADetga-sedVZSRZw0XofvaWQoMgvCSV7o1Ate6h1WoaTk1kwfQ%40mail.gmail.com.
