On the question of whether he had travelled to any place outside Delhi, Abhishek smirked, moving his head down to the left. 바카라I once went to Bihar. Home of my maternal grandmother, three- years- ago,바카라 he said. Except for that one expedition to Bihar, Abhishek has never travelled. He is in his late 20s and is visually impaired, pursuing a course to become a professional masseur.
However, Abhishek wants to travel, he wants to feel the smell of different places and wants to touch mountains. But so far he couldn바카라t. The obvious reason is the accessibility of tourist destinations, though, in the western countries accessible tourism is a relatively developed industry providing 바카라accessible tourism바카라 for people with special needs like persons with disabilities, senior citizens etc. While in India, it is yet to take off, because of lack of awareness and sensitivity toward various disabilities is creating a big hurdle.
As per the estimation of the world health organisation, over 15 per cent of the world's population lives with some form of disability. In India, 2.2 per cent of the population has some form of disability as per a National Statistics Office report of 2019. Independent estimates suggest that numbers are much higher.
Moreover, there is no data on how many people with disabilities travel every year. So there is a perception that people with disabilities don바카라t travel alone. Neha Arora, the founder of Planet Abled, an organization working on providing accessible travel solutions, believes that there is a lack of awareness and understanding of disability.
For instance, in the hospitality establishments, Arora said, 바카라The understanding of accessibility is limited. They will only make ramps or at max a toilet 바카라 because it is required to meet compliance. But they still think that people with disabilities don't travel or people with disabilities don't travel alone; people with disabilities are just limited to Wheelchair users."
But they do travel and wheelchair users only form a segment of persons with disability. 바카라Majority of people with disabilities, including visible or invisible disabilities, don바카라t use wheelchairs. So that conversation around accessibility is at the primitive stage.바카라
Hema Sain, a researcher, who also has a disability-related arthritis, stresses upon lack of accessibility to tourist destinations in India. 바카라As a person, we work in an organic way. If we want to go to a restaurant. We will discuss this with our group first. Then we will go. Because we know that accessibility is an issue,바카라 she said. Sain thinks that, in India, if one has any locomotive disability, then taking public transport is almost impossible. 바카라So how will a person with disability travel? In my case I book a cab, so, it is a case of affordability.바카라
She added, 바카라Making a ramp alone doesn바카라t make a place accessible, because that too requires a lot of considerations like what size and length.바카라 Amit Yadav, who is a lawyer and has a disability, recounted his experience during a college trip to hill station. 바카라When this idea of going on college trip emerged. I right away dismissed it. Because I know how tough it is. But my friends insisted I went. They assisted me throughout my trip,바카라 he said adding, 바카라there was no infrastructure, had they not helped me, I could never have imagined going to a place like that.바카라
In 2019, Kerala started the 바카라Barrier-Free Tourism Project바카라 making 120 destinations in the state disability-friendly 바카라 one of the pioneering efforts to make tourism accessible in India. Which got its global recognition making a special mention as an "Emerging Global Destination" by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). With this Kerala became the first state to implement, the UNWTO call 바카라 바카라tourism for all바카라.
Not just the accessibility, there are multiple other challenges that a person with disabilities face; like social stigma. Arora points out, 바카라Sometimes I have to reach out to parents of 40-year-olds and convince them to send their child to visit monuments in the same city that they have been living all through their life.바카라Â
However, 바카라once persons with disabilities realise that there is someone who understands our needs and caters to our needs, we can trust them, then they start coming to us like I want to do rafting or I want to do it as a team, Can you make it happen for us?바카라 she adds.Â
