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A train journey on the Indian Railways comes with its own set of problems and adventures. Many of us may complain about delays in departure time, or how dirty and unusable the toilets are, or that the food is bad.
But for a person bound to a wheelchair, these ‘adventures’ simply qualify as harassment.
Virali Modi is a motivational speaker, writer, model and a person with disability, living in Mumbai. She says she loves to travel. But her travels are punctured by unpleasant experiences of being deeply inconvenienced by poor facilities in the Indian Railways.
In a Change.org petition, Modi describes being groped by railway porters in three different instances. They were helping her board, as trains are not wheelchair equipped.
Modi complains that the railways treat disabled people as “a piece of luggage”.
In her petition, she asks to be heard by whoever will listen – Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.
According to Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, passed by the Parliament in December, all public spaces, including railway stations, must have facilities for people with disabilities:
But Modi claims she often feels humiliated because of “poor implementation”.
Her demands from the government are the following:
In a week’s time, the petition has garnered over 4,000 signatures. Modi wants to sit down with the Prime Minister or the Railway Minister, and convey her demands to them personally.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
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