Entry to Durga Puja pandals prove to be a huge challenge for disabled persons, a survey of 30 pandals in the city has shown.
A study conducted by Civilian Welfare Foundation (CWF), an organisation working for the rights of the disabled, has documented the problems encountered by the differently-abled while visiting pandals . The voluntary organisation selected 30 pandals in the city with daily footfalls of more than 4 lakh. CWF requested paralympic athletes to participate in the survey.
“Despite prior information, about half of them (14 puja committees of the 30 surveyed) advised us not to bring disabled people to the pandals as they did not have the requisite infrastructure,” Shuvojit Moulik, president of CWF, told The Hindu . At a popular pandal in south Kolkata, CWF representatives accompanying national para-triathlon champion Mohammed Gaffar asked for a wheelchair. To their surprise, they were offered a stretcher instead.
Some pandals provided wheelchairs but there were no ramps. Volunteers at one pandal even pushed a disabled woman into a long queue of pandal hoppers.
