Accessibility India Campaign Unfolding the

package

48 cities out of 200 cities

for all 676 districts and for
all the 6,38,000 villages will
be made accessible under
AIC

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Accessible India Campaign

- An Analyses

An Introduction
-

A flagship programme (Nation-Wide) of Government of India

To achieve Universal Accessibility
Synchronizing with the Incheon Strategy 3A, 3B & 3C Increasing
accessibility to physical environment, public transportation & Information
& Communication services

Approach of this analysis:

This report is divided into 3 chapters. Under each chapter we analyse the
commitment

under

this

campaign

towards

built

environment,

public

transportation and Information and communication.

The chapters will begin with a table showing the commitments under the
specific chapter head, the target that was proposed to be achieved and the
time line committed for.
The table will be followed by some clarifications in the form of a question
and answer.
References are provided wherever appropriate.

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Chapter I
Physical Environment
Table 1: showing Objects, targets & Time Line
Objective
Enhancing

Targets
50 Government

Activity
Audit and

Time Line
July 2016

proportion of

buildings in 26

making

accessible public

cities

accessible

25 Government

Audit and

buildings in

making

another 22 cities
50% of all

accessible
Fully accessible

July 2019

Fully accessible

July 2022

buildings
July 2016

Government
buildings in
National capital
50% of all
Government
buildings in 10
cities in all states
Source: http://disabilityaffairs.gov.in/content/accessible_india.php
Table 2 : Mapping cities to States
Cities Mentioned in States

Units that will be Coverage

AIC

made accessible

city to total
number

Bengaluru

Karnataka

of

districts
50 Most imp Gov. 1:30
(240
Building

towns
&29406

Chennai

Tamil Nadu

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. 2:32
(31
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Coimbatore

Tamil Nadu

Building
cities
50 Most imp Gov. 15400
Building
villages)

Delhi

Delhi

50 Most imp Gov. 1:11

Andhra

Building
50 Most imp Gov. 2:23(31cities

Hyderabad
Vishakapatnam

Andhra

Kolkata

West Bengal

&

Building
&
26613
50 Most imp Gov. villages)
Building
50 Most imp Gov. 1:19
(29
Building

cities
&37,945

Mumbai

Maharashtra

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. 4:35
(24

Pune

Maharashtra

Nagpur

Maharashtra

Building
cities
50 Most imp Gov. 44,198
Building
villages)
50 Most imp Gov.

Maharashtra

Building
25 most important

Nashik

&

Government
Ahmadabad

Gujarat

Building
50 Most imp Gov. 4:33

(22

Vadodara

Gujarat

Surat

Gujarat

Building
cities
50 Most imp Gov. &18,539
Building
villages)
50 Most imp Gov.

Gujarat

Building
25 most important

Gndhinagar

Government
Bhopal

Madhya

Building
50 Most imp Gov. 2:48

Pradesh

Building

(33

cities
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Indore

Madhya

50 Most imp Gov. &51541)

Kanpur

Pradesh
UP

Building
50 Most imp Gov. 4:70

Luknow

UP

Jhansi

UP

(65

Building
cities
50 Most imp Gov. 97942
Building
villages)
25 most important

&

Government
Varanasi

Building
25 most important

UP

Government
Jaipur

Building
50 Most imp Gov. 1:32

Rajasthan

Building

(16

cities

&

44672
Patna

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. 1:38
(27

Bihar

Building

cities

&

44,874
Raipur

Chhathisgar

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. 1:27
(12

Building

cities

&

19744
Gurgaon
Faridabad

Srinagar

Thiruvananthapura

Haryana
Haryana

Jammu

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. 2:19
(18
Building
cities
25 most important 6764
Government
villages)

&

Building
& 50 Most imp Gov. 1:22 (3 cities

Kashmir

Building

&6652

Kerala

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. 1:
14

(7

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Building

Bhubneshwar

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. 1:30

Odisha

Building

cities &1453

cities

(11
&

47529
Chandighar
Guwahati

UT

villages)
50 Most imp Gov. Ut with 23

Assam

Building
villages
50 Most imp Gov. 1:32
Building

(27

cities
&25590

Itanagar

Portblair

Arunachal

villages)
25 most important 1:19
(28

Pradesh

Government

cities &5485

Building

mapped

Andaman

villages)
25 most important Ut with
Government

Panaji

Goa

divisions

Building
25 most important UT
Government

Daman

UT

Building
25 most important UT
Government

Shimla

Ranchi

Kavaratti

Himachal

Building
25 most important 1:12

Pradesh

Government

Jharkand

Building
25 most important 1:22

Lakshdweep

(11

Government

cities

Building

32623

&

villages)
25 most important This island
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Government
Imphal

Manipur

Meghalaya

Mizoram

Nagaland

Pondicherry

Sikkim

Silvassa

Tripura

Ludhiana

(UT)

&

460

&

858

Building
villages)
25 most important 1:
10

Uttarkhand

Dadra

towns & 1317

Building
villages)
25 most important 1:4 (20 cities
Government

Dehradun

towns & 830

Building
25 most important 1:4 (16 cities
Government

Agartala

23

Building
villages)
25 most important 1:
4units
Government

Gangtok

cities &6861

Building
villages)
25 most important 1:8
(27
Government

Pondicherry

(21

Building
villages)
25 most important 1:8
(
Government

Kohima

villages)

Building
25 most important 1:11
Government

Aizawl

10

Building
panchayats
25 most important 1:9
(2639
Government

Shillong

has

Government

cities

Building

&16826

(7

villages)
& 25 most important UT

Nagar Haveli

Government

Punjab

Building
25 most important 1:22

(17

Government

cities

Building

12673

&

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villages
Source: the data source is from census India, Wikipedia and maps of India.

Clarifications:
1. How many cities are covered compared to total cities?
48 cities out of 200 cities in the country are covered.
2. What is the rationale for choosing these cities?
The website of the department for the empowerment of persons with
disabilities,

MSJE,(

http://disabilityaffairs.gov.in/content/index.php),

the strategy paper do not contain any details on the rationale for the
selection of these cities. However upon analysis, it was found that these
cities

either

fall

under

the

category

of

Mega

Cities

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_India_by_population) or
Million

plus

Cities

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_India_by_population)
3. Do they cover the entire public buildings in these chosen cities?
No. They cover 50 important Government buildings in 26 cities (refer
Table 2 above) & 25 important Government buildings in the remaining
cities chosen (refer Table 2 Above). There is no mention of other public
buildings.
4. What are important government buildings?
(http://disabilityaffairs.gov.in/content/accessible_india.php)

This

link

will guide one to know the list of buildings chosen. To take an example, for
Chennai

the

chosen

buildings

are

the

collectorate,

Agricultural

Department, Museum and few sub-urban railway stations and the recently
built MRTS.
5. Is there any time line provided for other cities?
By 2022 another 10 cities, which do not form part of the above
mentioned cities will be covered. But no mention could be found for
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ensuring accessibility to public building in all the other cities in the

country.
6. How many districts are covered compared to the total districts?
48 cities in 48 districts out of the total 676 districts
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_districts_in_India) are covered in
this campaign
7. Is there any state not covered? Name it?
No.
8. What is the time line to cover the cities mentioned?
The number of government buildings mentioned above will be made fully
accessible by July 2016. The additional 10 cities will be covered by 2022.
There is no commitment that could be culled out for the rest of India.
9. Are villages part of this campaign?
No. No mention of buildings at the sub district levels could be found.
10. How many villages are there in India?
As per census 2001 there are

6,38,000

villages

in

India.(

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=number+of+villages+in+India&ie=utf8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=is97VuiAOI3guQTCnaSIBQ)
11. What is the population of persons with disabilities in villages?
1,86,31,921 persons with disabilities live in rural areas. This works out to
69.5 % of the total population of persons with disabilities.
12. How are other flagship programmes implemented?
Different flagship programmes of the Union Government are implemented
differently. All of them are implemented in partnership with the state
Governments either with or without States financial contribution. Very
few programmes are implemented in a phased manner. But all programmes
that aim at protecting fundamental rights are implemented across the
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country. For example Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, ICDS, MGNREGS, Housing

(IAY), WASH etc,.
13. Is Access a right of an individual?
Yes. Access is a right for every citizen in the country and ensuring access
(i.e) providing accessibility is the duty of the country. This will ensure
realization of rights such as equality and non-discrimination, equality of
opportunities, right to information and communication, choice of
employment, equal recognition before law, right to life with dignity and so
on and so forth. Therefore, accessibility is crucial for all population
irrespective of their place of residence or any other human diversity.
14. Which is the responsible department / Ministry?
Department for the empowerment of persons with disabilities, MSJE.
15. Should it really be the responsibility of MSJE?
It should not. This scheme has to be ideally be recognized as a cross
cutting programme. If one looks at the XII Plan commitments of the
Union Government provision of accessibility has been committed by
almost all departments & Ministry. So the responsibility and funding
should be from across Ministries and has to be a component of the
existing programmes of the Ministries and cannot be from the specific
pool as this would amount to breach of the mandate of Article 4 of CRPD.
The reason being, there is a pre-existing legal mandate and cannot be
seen just as a programme or a campaign. Provision of accessibility should
be an ongoing agenda.
16. Details of Funding?
No clarity. It looks like the resources for allocation to SIPDA and few
programmes of urban development such as HRIDAY, smart cities will be
used for this.

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Chapter 2
Transportation
Table 3 showing Objects, targets & Time Line
Objects
Enhancing

Targets
All International

Activity
Conducting

proportion of

Airports

accessibility audit of

accessible

all the international

airports

airports and

Time Line
July 2016

converting them into

fully accessible
All domestic

international airports
Conducting

airports

accessibility audit of

July 2017

all domestic airports

and converting them
into fully accessible
Enhancing

international airports
25% of all railway Conducting and

proportion

stations

July 2016

accessibility audit

accessible

and converting into

railway

fully accessible

stations

railway stations
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50% of all railway Conducting and

stations

July 2017

accessibility audit
and converting into
fully accessible

Enhancing

25% of

railway stations
Into fully accessible

the

Government

carriers

proportion of

owned public

accessible

transport

July 2017

public
transport
Clarifications:
1. Is accessible travel guaranteed by the campaign?
The guarantee in not accessible travel but only of proportionate
stations / ports
2. Is there mention of trains, aircrafts to be made accessible?
The strategy paper mentions of airports and railway stations. There is no
mention of trains, air crafts etc,. being made accessible. There is also no
mention of carriers within the airports that facilitates passengers reach
the aircrafts from the boarding point. However, if we look at the 3 rd
objective public transport carriers probably this would include trains,
aircrafts, buses, ships, ferries etc,. But we do not know the exact number
disaggregated based on the type of carrier that we will be made
accessible. The question here is 25% of what number of carriers will be
accessible.
3. What about harbors and ships?
No mention could be found.
4. What is meant by Enhancing proportion of accessible airports?
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This means increasing the number of accessible airports in the country.

For example (Hypothetically) if 10 out of 50 airports are International
airports and out of which 2 are accessible then the remaining
international airports will be made accessible during 2016 .
5. Do we know how many railway stations are there in India?
According

to

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_railway_stations_in_India) there
are 4337 railway stations in India.
6. What is the commitment to make these railway stations accessible?
By July 2016 1084 railway stations will be made accessible
By July 2017 1626 railway stations will be made accessible
There is no commitment towards the remaining 1626 stations in the
country. As per the Railways fact sheet there are 7000 stations.
7. What is meant by Public Transport Carriers?
It could be any mode of transport that the general public uses for
commuting. The major means of transport includes: trains, buses, ferrys,
trams, ships, aircrafts, public taxis, vans etc,.
8. How many public transport carriers are there in our country?
A consolidated data on the number will be very difficult to cull out as
majority of them are State owned.
9. How much is 25% of all public transport carriers?
Do not know but it is very small. If we take the example of trains run by
India Railways, there are around 14300 trains (http://www.facts-aboutindia.com/indian-railway-facts.php). 25% of this itself would amount to
3575 trains only. All the remaining 10725 trains will remain inaccessible.
This can help us to understand that only very numbers of carriers can
only be made accessible according to this commitment.

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Chapter 3
Information & Communication & eco-system accessibility
Table 4:
Objects
Enhancing

Targets
50% Government

Activity
Making them fully

proportion of

and State

accessible

accessible

Government

and usable

websites

Time Line
July 2016

public
documents
and websites
50% Public

Making them fully

documents issues

accessible

July 2017

by Union and
State
Enhancing

Governments
200 additional

Training and

the pool of

sign language

Development

sign language

interpreters

interpreters
Enhancing

Developing standards

the

for captioning

July 2016

July 2016

proportion of
daily
captioning &
sign language
interpretatio
n of daily
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news
25% of all public

fully accessible

July 2018

television
programmes to
meet the
standards
Clarifications
1. What are covered under information and communication accessibility?
a. Government websites to adhere to the standards.
b. Public documents include laws, rules, forms, brochures and reports.
2. What are the documents not covered under public documents?
Financial documents, Policy notes, citizens charter etc,. that are
released by Government and any documents produced for public access
by non-governmental agencies are not covered.
3. Will information and communication accessibility include AAC, plain
language etc,.
As per the targets mentioned above, there is specific mention of web
content accessibility and provision of sign language captioning to be
more specific. Though accessibility includes plain language and AAC,
there is no specific mention on the same.
4. Will sign language be recognized as a National language?
No. Not under this campaign. There is no mention in the strategy on
this.
5. Will captioning include programmes such as films, dramas, music etc,.?
No as per the strategy captions and sign language interpretation is
provided for only news.

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Conclusion
Does this campaign adheres to the principle on Non-Discrimination
mandated by CRPD?
No. The following table illustrates the same:
Table 5: Objectives , Targets and Discrimination
Objectives

Targets

Is

it

Non- Remarks

Discriminatory
Enhancing

1. 50

proportion of

Governm

accessible

ent

public buildings

buildings

It only covers
No

select building
in

only

48

cities.
Persons

in 26

with

disabilities

cities

living the rest

of the cities ,

2. 25
Governm

towns

ent

villages in the

buildings

remaining

in

districts will be

another

discriminates.
To
conclude

22 cities

and

the 69.5% of
the

rural

population
not

Enhancing the

NO

will

benefit

from
Enhancing the

676

this

campaign
Overall there
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proportion of

proportion of

is

accessible

airports

commitment to

transportation

cover only 50%

Enhancing the

of

any

given

proportion of

transport

Railway

stations

stations

exemption

with

airports.

of
This

Enhancing the

is

proportion of

discriminating

public carriers

all

those

belonging to a
particular
economic
status and that
of the place of
living
25%

of

carriers

all
is

miniscule
compared

to

the wide range

of

public

carriers

in our country.
Only restricted

Enhance

50% of

proportion

websites and

to government

accessible

documents

documents and

information and

NO

used

websites to the

communication
extent of 50%.
Overall there is no commitment for full accessibility for all.
What can be done?
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1. Engage now by writing letters to the concerned official to relook at

the design of the campaign
2. Ask for inclusive accessible India Campaign that No one is left
behind.
3. Demands for expansion of the programme in terms of coverage
4. Apply for empanelment from all over India.
Why should we engage? To ensure Equality & Non-Discrimination.

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