September 16, 2019
The battery powered cars at Chennai central railway station are not
accessible to elderly and disabled people. In spite of the many complaints
received, authorities have not taken any action and the situation does not
seem to improve. People with disabilities who use stations across Tamil Nadu
face similar problems and are struggling to move around inside the station in
spite of these battery powered cars functioning at stations.
Accessing railway stations and trains are always a struggle for people with
disabilities. In spite of framing of the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD) nothing substantial has been
implemented till date owing to which disabled people are unable to fully
access trains or railway stations. Recently, complaints were raised on how
battery powered cars at Chennai central,
one of the biggest railway stations in the country, do now allow people with
disabilities to access it. According to reports, battery powered car drivers
simply refuse a disabled person which is clearly a violation of the law.
Though these battery powered cars have been deployed for reaching out to an
elderly or disabled person, it is never available to them. Since there are no
clear set of rules regarding these cars, drivers decide whom they would drive
it around for inside the railway station. This is not an isolated case inside
Dr MG Ramachandran central railway station, but inside many
prominent stations across Tamil Nadu. Since the facility was recently made a
paid one, only those who can afford it are provided the services.
Nanbu Rajan, General Secretary of TARATDAC that empowers and
reaches out to people with disabilities in Tamil Nadu says that unless the
drivers of these battery powered cars are sensitised about needs of people
with disabilities, such complaints are going to prevail.
It is the mandatory duty of state government and Indian railways to provide
accessible facilities for people with disabilities. These battery powered
cars are not directly run by the railways and are instead sponsored by big
corporate companies including its drivers. So this basically turns out to
become an income generation process. Different fares are collected from
different stations. Almost every day we get complaints. We have already
taken it up with matter with authorities almost two years back. Nothing has
been done till date-Nanbu Rajan, General Secretary,
TARATDAC.
In Chennai central alone, there are five battery powered cars
which can seat up to six people. Each person has to pay Rs
10 for the services. Moreover, elderly and disabled people are made to
wait for a long time in order to access the cars. Drivers prefer to attend to
families so that they can finish the trips easily.
Authorities believe that providing counselling to the drivers and giving them
instructions on how to make these battery powered cars more disabled friendly
will be of help. People from the disability community have come forward and
urged officials to sensitize these drivers about the need to make stations
more disabled friendly at the earliest.
“I have to travel every day in a train to my work place. In spite of the many
challenges that I face regularly, I don’t have any other option. I travel
from Egmore station where they have a battery car facility inside the
station. But they refuse to drop a disabled person citing many reasons”, says
Rafeeq Ahmed, a wheelchair user from Chennai.
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