India has four Young Voices groups – one each in Delhi, Bangalore, Jharkhand and Mumbai. Members focus on making sure that existing laws are enforced and lobbying for new legislation. Campaign issues include: access to public sector jobs, accessible voting, access to social protection and advocacy for a new law to harmonise with the UNCRPD.
Leonard Cheshire Disability
Young Voices
11 January 2012
Underground but not unseen
Disabled people will be able to access the services they need in Delhi’s metro thanks to a successful campaign by the city’s Young Voices group. When the newest line of the Delhi metro, in India’s capital, was completed in early 2011 Young Voices members were already campaigning to make the system accessible for people with disabilities. Before this, disabled people had trouble accessing the underground because of steep escalators, overcrowding, and difficulty seeing or hearing train information, etc. In response to meetings and a memorandum from Young Voices, the Delhi metro rail corporation has now agreed that a member of staff will, when necessary, escort disabled people to a train and radio ahead to the next station to say that the disabled passenger will be arriving. Once there, a member of staff will help the passenger to reach the next train, a bus or a motorised rickshaw to continue the journey. Those of us who trek to work on the London underground can only wish for such a responsive service.
Young Voices is an international campaign of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Global Alliance