The
Times of India: New Delhi: Monday, October 29, 2012.
Gulmohar
Park's post office exists in the basement of DDA market, down a flight of
stairs in a structure with no ramps or lift. That, however, hasn't deterred the
south division of the India Post from declaring it "barrier-free" in
its reply to an RTI enquiry filed by Dr Satyendra Singh, professor of
physiology at University College of Medical Sciences and doctor at GTB
Hospital.
Singh,
himself disabled, filed a query under RTI Act in July requesting information
from the postal department on the levels of accessibility at Delhi post
offices. The reply is worrying as many first-floor post offices have no lifts
and many of those declared "barrier-free" have stairs leading to
them.
South
division claims 65 of their 67 post offices (including Gulmohar Park's), are
"barrier-free". The ones at Chittaranjan Park and Kailash Colony, it
admits, are on the first floor "without any facility of lift". South
division also claims that "ramps have been constructed for free movement
of wheelchairs" and "height of all the counters has been lowered for
easy access".
West
division, too, claims "all the post offices of this division are easily
accessible and barrier-free". "The two post offices in Rajouri Garden
are both on the ground floor. The one in Janta Market has a very high pavement
in front of it and the one in the main market is on a narrow and potholed
bylane frequently flooded by sewage water and is slippery. A visually-impaired
person can't reach that one," says Singh. The postal department didn't
reply to his queries immediately but responded only after a first appeal was
filed.
Singh travels
10 kilometers to Vasundhara, Ghaziabad, to send a speed post as the post
offices closer to home all are inaccessible. "We only have impairments,
it's the society which makes us disabled," he says.
North
division runs 81 post offices of which 14 are above ground-floor or occupy
multiple-floors. As per the division's own admission, "there is no
provision of lifts in any post office building". However, the division had
written to the executive engineer, postal civil division, for providing
assistance as per the Disability Act, in seven post offices (including Ashok
Vihar, Civil Lines, Malka Ganj and Rohini Sector 7) first in January 2009 and
again in July and September, 2010, "but the needful has not been done
yet". Southwest division runs 60 post offices, mostly from rented
buildings, and 46 of them don't have ramps for wheelchairs. None of the post
offices in the southwest division are on the first floor.
In central
division, four post offices are operating from first-floors, "without
having the lift" or any "separate arrangement for the people with
disability". East division, too, states that "no post office under
this division is with the facility of lift" and "no facilities were
provided" for people with disability on POs above ground-floor. They say
that barring seven post offices (at Krishna Nagar, Azad Nagar, Old Seemapuri,
Mayur Vihar, Shahdaramandi, Gandhi Nagar Bazar and GTB Hospital), the rest of their
62 offices are "accessible to all persons with disabilities".
Apparently, the stairs (without even handrails) at the PO in Jhilmil Industrial
Area are not a barrier.
In the first
question, Singh had sought "accessibility status" and explained what
he meant by adding parenthetically, "whether accessible/barrier-free or
not to persons with disabilities". In reply to this query, the office of
the director, General Post Office, informs, "The GPO is centrally located
and it is, therefore, accessible for all".