While train journey is preferred by people for being safe, inexpensive and hassle-free, the differently abled have a whole another story to tell.
“We presented many of our grievances in the past through meetings and representations. Even though a few of them have been accepted and adapted by the railways, many are yet to be made,” said participants at an awareness campaign organised by the Railway Protection Force of the Southern Railway here on Saturday.
Divisional Regional Manager A.K. Rastogi presided over the meeting and released a pamphlet on the importance of showing empathy towards differently abled people travelling in trains. At an interaction which followed, Mr. Rastogi heard the grievances of the differently abled.
S.J. Amudhashanthi, a physically challenged woman who runs the Thyagam Trust for the differently abled, said that railway stations needed to have working lifts where wheelchairs could be accommodated. “Escalators are of no use to us since we can’t keep crutches on them. We should also be given time to board when train timings are changed in the last minute,” she said.
K. Dhanalakshmi said that the bathrooms in the waiting rooms and trains had to be maintained well. “For physically challenged persons like me who crawl, we are unable to enter bathrooms that are dirty and wet,” she stated.
“We are often forced to wait for long hours for the battery cars or wheelchairs to come and take us to the platform,” Ms. Dhanalakshmi said.
Raising the issue of the non-disabled occupying the special coach meant for them, Saravana Kumar, a visually challenged person, said that they had been subjected to verbal abuses and stone pelting by the public if they refused to open their coach door to accommodate them.
“It should be made aware that the general public would be fined if they enteredour coach. The position of the coach for us should be announced specifically to help the visually challenged locate it easily,” he said and called for the operation of separate queues for the differently abled in the Madurai station ticket counters.
Mr. Rastogi recorded the complaints and assured to look into them.
