Govt says over 50,000 buses, 1,800 buildings made accessible under Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan
The government of India has made strides in improving accessibility for persons with disabilities. Under the Accessible India Campaign, many public buildings were retrofitted. Thousands of buses were upgraded to meet accessibility standards. Railway stations saw improvements like ramps and accessible toilets. Websites were also made more accessible. Assistive devices are being distributed to those in need.
Campaign logo (File photo) The Union government said on Wednesday that it has retrofitted more than 1,800 public buildings and upgraded over 50,000 buses to meet accessibility standards under the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), a flagship programme launched in 2015 to improve access for persons with disabilities (PwDs). In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment B L Verma said Rs 564.50 crore had been released to states and Union territories for retrofitting 1,835 government buildings to make them accessible. "As accessibility is an ongoing and continuous process, the Department is actively pursuing with the concerned stakeholders for achieving universal accessibility," he said. The Ministry of Railways reported significant progress, including the installation of ramps at 5,639 stations, accessible parking at 2,525 stations and accessible toilets at 4,829 stations, he said. Wheelchairs are now available at more than 5,854 stations. To assist visually impaired passengers, train stations have been equipped with tactile paths, Coach Guidance Systems (947 stations), Train Indication Boards (1,143 stations), and Public Address Systems (6,133 stations), he added.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that 51,041 of the 1.45 lakh buses operated by 61 state transport undertakings across 24 states and Union territories have been made accessible. Of these, 25,216 are intercity coaches and 25,825 are intracity buses. Additionally, 75 per cent of bus stations (2,521 out of 3,363) have undergone accessibility retrofitting. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that 145 websites, including 123 Central and four state government websites, have been certified accessible under the STQC (Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification) as per Guidelines for Indian Government Websites guidelines. A further 676 State and UT government websites have been made accessible, and over 3,000 websites have been onboarded to the S3WaaS (Secure, Scalable & Sugamya Website as a Service) platform. The government is also distributing assistive devices under the 'Assistance to Persons with Disabilities for Purchase/Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP)' scheme.
These include artificial limbs, hearing aids, smart canes, smartphones and motorised tricycles for eligible persons with disabilities, including school-going children under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the minister said.
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