About Samarthyam
Since 1991, Samarthyam has been pioneering rights based approach for universal accessibility and gender equity. We collaborate with State and Central (federal) Governments, State Transport Authorities, service providers and public transit agencies:
- To identify mobility challenges and provide innovative solutions for persons with reduced mobility and disabilities
- To create inclusive and gender friendly transit services that could be sustained and replicated across the Asia Pacific Region
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According to India’s 2011 census, 26.8 million people or 2.21 per cent of the total population in the country are recognized as having a disability. However, given WHO’s global disability prevalence estimate of 15 percent, the census figures are likely to be a significant underestimation; the World Bank estimates that there might be up to 90 million persons with disabilities in India.
Often, at the district level, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and government agencies suffer from a lack of capacity-building support and funding to ensure disability mainstreaming into their policy formulation and implementations. The insufficient participation of persons with disabilities in institutional structures, processes, and mechanisms further impedes them from advancing disability inclusion and disability rights.
Persons with disabilities are less represented in local government bodies. Women representatives with disabilities fare worse than men with disabilities in disability communities and networks. Considering that women with disabilities face intersecting discrimination based on their gender and disability status, it is imperative to increase women’s representation in institutional processes and mechanisms that govern disability policies, programs, and services at district and state levels.
OPDs and government agencies also have limited opportunities to strengthen their technical capacities in the areas of sectoral policy development and programming. In the targeted five districts of the state of Rajasthan, technical guidance on improving accessibility in the built-in environment, such as access to public buildings and transportation, is much needed. The existing barriers to physical infrastructure at the district level compromise significantly the mobility of persons with disabilities and, therefore, their access to essential service and social activities including rehabilitation and health services, education, social protection, employment and self-employment, list is endless.
In an era where ‘inclusive development’ is being emphasized as the only path towards sustainable development, focused initiatives on gender equality, empowerment of persons with disabilities, and accessibility, are essential for the achievement of the Incheon Strategy Goals, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Outcome
- Integration and promotion of gender inclusion into institutional and community structures, processes and mechanisms; mainstream community networks and government agencies leveraging the existing models and making these gender inclusive and responsive.
- To ensure Leave No One Behind empowering women with disabilities especially rural, marginalized and transport disadvantaged:
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Training workshops- ‘Advocacy Tool on Inclusive
Mobility’ use for mass awareness in community led programs, panchayat and
service providers
o
Access Audits
training to 260 persons with disabilities of road, pedestrian and transport
hubs e.g. bus stops, terminuses and railway stations
o
District Gender Committees formation- trained
WwDs to lead advocacy, networking for gender inclusive services and infrastructure
o Zero Tolerance for abuse of WwDs- partnership with local police and taking them on-board Gender Committee
o
Gender Sensitization Training- 5 districts State
Transport Departments to develop gender inclusive policies and develop
gender-lens in infrastructure design
Impact
- Samarthyam’s partnership with OPDs is an endeavor to bring meaningful changes to achieve a unified action towards gender inclusion in Rajasthan.
- Project outcomes and achievements are testimony of best practice to implement, replicate and scale up in other states and developing countries.
- Mark beginning of tangible and paradigm shift towards Inclusive Mobility.
- Leave behind legacy for achieving the Disability Inclusive 2030 Agenda and Disability Inclusive Decade 2032.
Thanks for reading!
Author:
D. Chakravarti, Director
Bureau of Indian Standards, Government of India
Indian Roads Congress, Government of India
Transport Research Board, USA
