Context

Among the various disadvantages we poorly equipped to support people with disabilities about access to parliament. It is time to make the physical and digital interface of parliament and other buildings more disabled-friendly.

What are the common suggestions about disabled friendly parliament?

Disable friendly facilities: In December 2015, the Government of India launched the Accessible India Campaign (AIC) to make the built environment, ICT ecosystem and transport facilities more disabled-friendly.
Lack of enforcement: A strong enforcement mechanism is unfortunately absent in the AIC, led by people with disabilities and accessibility professionals, to ensure that ambitious milestones are set and pursued to their meaningful conclusion.

Make every building accessible: A report by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, titled “Beyond Reasonable Accommodation” points out, the requirement to make every new building accessible before it is granted an Occupancy Certificate.
Integration of laws: The relevant provisions of the Harmonised Guidelines and Standards for Universal Accessibility in India, 2021 must be integrated into local bye-laws and state planning laws.
Sensitivity about compliance: Municipal authorities must have the know-how and sensitivity to gauge compliance with the norms to make the built environment accessible and access to competent accessibility professionals who can provide appropriate inputs at every stage.
Professions to enforce compliance: The list of empanelled professionals maintained by municipal authorities must also consist of accessibility professionals, and this requirement must be codified in model building bye-laws and the National Building Code.

Accessibility committee: Parliament must set up an accessibility committee urgently that must be tasked with delivering recommendations in a time-bound fashion on making every aspect of the Parliamentary process more disabled-friendly.
Taking cue from supreme court: The constitution of an Accessibility Committee by the Supreme Court recently may be a good reference point for Parliament.

Accessibility criteria in procurement: Central and state level procurement laws and policies must incorporate accessibility criteria in public procurement of physical, digital and transport infrastructure.
Accessible tenders and documents: These must be replicated in agreements between procurement agencies and bidders/contractors. In addition, tender documents must set out applicable accessibility standards.

Disable people suffers from structural disadvantage at every stage of governance including building infrastructure. Parliament should start from itself to give larger message of about sensitivity towards disabled friendly buildings.

Mains Question

Q. Explain the limitations of accessible India campaign? Suggest the way towards more disable friendly buildings in India.