Indian Railways remains incompatible to physically challenged passengers Part 1

Indian Railways remains incompatible to physically challenged passengers  Part 1

The Indian Railways, touted as the world’s largest employer, and the world’s biggest organisation is also reputed for optimum usage of resources and space. It is perhaps the most cost effective means of cross continental travel for the masses in reasonable comfort. Its logistics are the stuff management studies’ syllabus is made of. Yet it falls short of compatibility to the needs of physically challenged persons.

Albeit offering 50% concession to PH (physically handicapped / challenged) passengers accompanied by an adult, - if the person has at least 50% disability - the Indian Railways is hardly the benchmark for the comfort of PH passengers. 

Swank new cars with shining steel wheels, AC cars, spic and span floors, clean toilets with installed soap dispensers, water faucets, no more leaking taps .... they are all impressive; but consider the wheelchair bound passenger who has no ramp to slide the wheelchair into the car. 

Simple monetary concessions are inadequate, given the complexity of the Indian Railways. The hearing and speech impaired passengers are really in need of trained personnel on the trains. 29 year old Subba Rao in Bangalore is hearing and speech impaired. He maybe entitled to 50% concession, but his moist eyed mother Indramma says “I want my son to be self-reliant and face the world”. Her call is for a system to be in place to help challenged people. He cannot communicate without sign language but on occasions when he travels on train alone and asks someone for help he is often abused or shrugged off for begging. In case he is hungry and wants to buy food catered on trains he cannot communicate with the IRCTC catering staff. “There is certainly a need for trained personnel for hearing and speech impaired passengers” Indramma told Digital Discourse. 

Given its ISO certification, Indian Railways ought to be compatible to the requirements of impaired passengers. That will help improve India’s human rights record and make economic sense in the long term. Consider the deficit of compatibility for PH passengers on Indian trains:

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     Railway staff too can avail of compatible infrastructure for logistical preparations... which are obviously inadequate in Indian Railways. © Picture by Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation

Add caThe vertical steps are downright incompatible even to normal passengers, challenging frail infirm and impaired passengers. These vertical steps are compatible only to the platforms, not to the passengers using them.© Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation    

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     There are no ramps to board the trains. There are no sloping steps either, the vertical steps one on top of another in the train cars without railing support is a recipe for disaster waiting to happen - putting even physically fit passengers at risk of fall or injury. These vertical steps are only compatible to the platforms but not to the passengers using them.

·      There are no walking escalators on the notoriously lengthy platforms. There are instances all too often of PH passengers missing their trains because they are unable to reach their train cars on time across the miles-long platforms. Not all trains have vestibule connections. This makes the lengthy walk on platforms time consuming, hazardous and exhausting for PH passengers without access to walking escalators and wheelchairs. Even licensed porters with a badge and the red coat demand bribes to usher a wheelchair bound passenger; on Thursday, 1.02.18 this writer requested for a wheelchair on platform # 6 at the Yeshwanthpur Railway station in Bangalore but a licensed red coated porter demanded Rs. 200 as "rental fees" for hiring a wheelchair. When I asked if there will be a receipt the porter disappeared. There is a need for atleast 40 wheelchairs and 3 ambulifts in every single railway station in India.  

·    Battery operated golf carts are ‘visible’ only in big city railway stations, often because they are the donations of corporate houses which want visibility like this too.

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     There are no luggage escalators for luggage for either PH passengers or senior citizens.

·       Luggage escalators will spare human exploitation of porters too.

·  Aisles inside the train cars are not wide enough to accommodate wheelchair bound passengers. Wider aisles will help the catering staff too.

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     There is no space for parking a stretcher bound passenger anywhere inside the trains.

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Toilets in Indian trains are not large enough to accommodate wheelchairs. The quality and cleanliness leaves much to be desired. Infact the lack of hygiene in the train toilets can trigger infections and diseases afresh for physically challenged passengers who lack resistance to disease and pestilence.  © Malini Shankar, Digital Discourse Foundation

    Toilets on trains are not large enough to accommodate wheelchair bound passenger(s). They have the expensive choice of flying; - often circuitous connections are hazardous, expensive, and exhausting if at all they are affordable to the rural physically challenged person. Toilets are not compatible to wheelchair bound and other kinds of mobility impaired PH passengers.

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   The food and beverages offered on Indian Railways are not compliant to the needs of diabetics. With diabetes assuming pandemic proportions in India, it is time to make healthy fibrous food & beverage options available for diabetic passengers. Consider that one in 5 Indians are diabetic. That means every coupe with 8 passengers is likely to have at least 1 diabetic passenger in their midst. That makes it a significant 234 diabetics in a train carrying 1812 passengers in 26 train cars on one long distance Express train. Indian Railways operates 11000 trains per day 365 days of the year. So that means approximately 1,99,32,000 diabetic passengers avail Indian Railway services every day. Certainly big business if their nutrition needs are specifically catered to, for a charge. Add the shorter length passenger trains and shuttle services, and getting an accurate picture is well night impossible. It is at the least a significant quantity to cook separately for. But surely it makes economic sense as an investment for the Railways.The same is the case on airlines – the world over, but that is another subject.

·  Food packets and water packets cannot be easily opened by mobility impaired PH passengers without scissors.

·    The loco pilot in Indian Railways does not have access to a Public Address system and cannot communicate with his / her passengers. In case of medical or other kinds of emergencies a PA system will be of inestimable value to save lives. Imagine if a loco pilot can call attention to the medical professionals who maybe travelling on the train and if there is a need for one such professional’s emergency services… 

·   The platforms are never on par with the train floor. That would make it easy to wheel in wheelchairs, stretchers, perambulators, carts, cycles, even the supplies of the railway staff. European and North American train floors are on par with platforms. 

 In India platforms in railway stations are not uniformly designed, the height difference varies from one station to another. Some rural stations do not have platforms all together. It becomes impossible for amputees or physically challenged persons to board in such stations without wheelchairs, or ramps.

Need for infrastructure:

The travails of PH passengers in Indian Railway are manifold. Visually challenged and hearing and speech impaired persons find it impossible to easily locate the platform from which their train maybe departing or arriving at: this is because display boards are not so easy to read / access / for the visually impaired. Announcements on the PA system can be complemented by Braille publications or made electronically user friendly on the railway website. Seat allotment chart at the entrance of train cars are illegible print outs, again not compatible to visually challenged persons who need it in Braille. The need for a desk clerk to attend to the needs of visually impaired passengers (who cannot read electronic display boards about arrival and departure schedules or platform listing) is felt and needs to be attended to on priority Mr. Railway Minister. 

Battery operated cars for frail and infirm are largely donated by corporate houses and are visible only in large railway stations. They are also grossly inadequate in supply. Contacting these car operators in no easy task either.  © Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation. 

Entering the platform is another challenge. Ramps can make the last loop walkathon in Indian railway stations much easier for PH passengers and senior citizens; it is easy for wheelchair pushing porters / assistants and for negotiating battery operated golf carts too. Walking escalators are necessary for frail and infirm passengers to cover the vast stretch of the platforms. 

Touts harass wheelchair bound passengers: 

Though a few odd wheelchairs are strewn around railway stations they are usually in a state of disrepair, with front wheels missing, lacking cushions! PH passengers have to depend on whimsical porters who exploit desperate passengers asking for rent for the use of wheelchairs. Manoeuvring wheelchair bound passengers in crowded platforms needs skilled and trained personnel. Unless you insist, no receipts are given for renting the wheelchair not to mention the language barriers. The corruption that permeates all walks of life in Indian society does not spare the physically challenged persons’ haggling in Indian Railway stations. In case you insist on a receipt for use of wheelchair one has to pay a separate tip to the porter – demanded upfront. This is not a discretionary option for the PH passengers. The wheelchair is furnished with tax payers’ money, but denied free access to genuine PH passengers. 

According to EU guidelines - “Summary of EU legal provisions on rail passenger rights” “Railway companies shall provide disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility with assistance on board a train and during boarding and disembarking from a train free of charge”.

Passengers have to beg porters in India for pushing wheelchairs; porters do not know the import of injuring PH passengers and the question of insurance liability is not adequately addressed in India either by Insurance companies or Railways / railway staff. Railways have their own set procedure for loss of limb or life of passengers in transit. That this is not compatible to international standards and ill fits ISO 140000 certification of the Indian Railways.

Further, according to EU regulations “Summary of EU legal provisions on rail passenger rights” “There is no financial limit in case of liability of the railway undertaking for loss or damages to mobility equipment: in this case, the liability covers the total or partial loss of, or damage to, mobility equipment or other specific equipment used by disabled persons or persons with reduced mobility.”

You ask Indian Railways about this, but the question will not arise! Railway staff will be accountable to the public they serve only if the financial liability in case of accidents or damage to passengers' mobility equipment is unlimited like in the EU. 

   Facilities mandatorily required for physically challenged persons in Indian Railways:

• Separate AC train cars for physically challenged persons with the requisite facilities on each train. These facilities are, among others:

• Separate handicapped friendly toilets with room for wheelchairs, mirrors, shelves, sinks, taps, faucets, flush handles, latches, all accessible for a person seated on a wheelchair

• WCs or western commodes with disposable paper rims.

• Flexible stairs that can extend to become a ramp for boarding and alighting wheelchair passengers

• Ramps, ambu-lifts, room for stretchers and fully equipped first aid / emergency medical staff on call in such cars

• Telephone connection in such cars, meant strictly for the use of authorised personnel and bona fide physically challenged passengers only.

• Escalators, (horizontal and climbing escalators on platforms, wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs)

• Elevators on every platform at a distance of one serving every alternate train car

• Luggage escalators / conveyor belts beside every stairway in the railway stations

• Electric wheel chairs at every platform,

• Important offices like ticketing counters, waiting halls, cloak rooms, public toilets should be easily accessible by ramp entrance at the front of the railway stations itself.

• Separate lines for physically handicapped / mentally handicapped persons should be policed for misuse by touts and unauthorised mala fide applicants.

• Uniform height of all platforms in all railways stations in India. It is hideously dangerous to expect passengers healthy or challenged to jump off trains to depths of 3 metres below the train floor!

• Eligibility of tickets / priority for booking tickets for persons accompanying mentally challenged persons in 2^nd class train travel.

• While mentally retarded persons traveling with an escort for any purpose  can avail of concession for upto 75% in II, SL, I, AC CC & AC 3-T and 50% in AC 2-T and AC I. (for both) 50%

• (for both) 50%

• (for both)… sensitizing staff and crew of their needs is much more important.

• Automated services and signboards without the nuisance of touts are very important in this context.

Sensitising the society is necessary for the benefit of physically challenged persons:

In the second part of this article we will see how trains in Europe and North America are designed and built with compatibility to PH passengers.

Text and pictures by Malini Shankar

Malini Shankar is a wildlife photojournalist radio broadcaster and documentary filmmaker based in Bangalore. Malini is the director of Digital Discourse Foundation (www.digitaldiscourse.org.in)