Exclusive India

Please don’t go by the title this post is not about anything that make us exclusive. It’s about how little we do to include everyone in mainstream. Ever since I became a mom I have been increasingly realizing how little do we think about inclusive society? Everywhere I go I am rarely able to navigate my baby’s stroller end to end.  Almost everywhere I have to physically lift and carry the stroller at least once. Every time I do so my brain goes to people on wheel chairs or to old people who are unable to navigate on stairs. This is gross neglect on the part of government and law enforcement to include differently abled or aged or little one in the regular life.

A few months ago I visited one of the very famous tourist spots in north India, with my family, which includes my infant. Almost for the entire trip to that place we had to carry baby in in our arms and stroller separately. The paths were not navigable. In fact I doubt my parents or any old people can visit the place. The place is huge with no resting places, no mechanism of early exits, only one way in and one way out. How does anyone expect anyone with difficulty in walking or small kid to visit?

Forget the tourist place I can’t even take my little one out for a walk beyond the premises I live in as most places are not accessibility friendly. What goes through the brain of the engineers who plan such places? All it takes is to build a few ramps instead of stairs. All the malls are accessibility friendly internally but there is no way to enter most of them on a wheel chair. Or to walk to them with a baby on stroller.

Sometimes people even go to the extent of saying that why do you want to go around places if navigating them is so difficult. What they fail to understand is that more often than not it’s a necessity.  All these people have a right to carry on their business on their own. Why does anyone think it’s okay to have places which can only be accessed by able bodied young people and everyone else does not need to visit them?