Aiming to ensure ease of access for persons with disabilities (PwDs) in government buildings, public transportation and the information technology field, the Centre has lined up an 'Accessible India Campaign' which is to be launched next month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The nationwide flagship initiative for facilitating easy access for PwDs will be inaugurated by Modi on 'International Day of Persons with Disabilities' on December 3.
The prime minister will also present awards to individuals /organisations for "outstanding" contributions towards the empowerment of PwDs during an event on the same day.
As part of "inclusive" activities that it is undertaking in order to empower PwDs, the government will in the run up to the launch of the campaign also hold an international film festival -- which is being billed as the first of its kind -- to showcase movies dealing with the lives of PwDs.
Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, will inaugurate the three-day film festival, which begins tomorrow at Siri Fort auditorium here.
"The prime minister will launch the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan (Accessible India Campaign) and also hand over the national awards. The campaign is aimed at making three verticals disabled-friendly: built environment, public transport sector and IT field.
"We have taken various important parameters into consideration and involved all important stakeholders for taking this campaign forward," Lov Verma, secretary of the ministry's department of persons with disabilities, told reporters here.
He said that, under the 'built environment' vertical, the government intends to audit and convert at least 50 "most- important" government buildings in 26 cities, including in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, into "fully accessible" buildings by July, 2016.
The government further aims to convert 50 per cent of all government buildings in the national and state capitals into "fully accessible" structures by July, 2018.
The department has also decided to audit 50 per cent of government buildings in 10 most important cities/towns of all states (other than those already covered) and make them "fully accessible".
Stressing on the need to ensure PwDs' accessibility to public transportation, Verma said that the government aims to make all international airports in the country "fully accessible" by July, 2016. Domestic airports will be made completely disabled-friendly by March, 2018.
Similarly, there is a target for making major (A1, A and B categories) railway stations, which have maximum footfall, "fully" accessible by July, 2016, he said, adding that the government also plans to make 50 per cent of all the stations in the country disabled-friendly by March, 2018.
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Verma added that the ministry is making efforts to ensure that, by the same period, 10 per cent of government-owned public transport carriers in the country become fully accessible.
"We shall be writing to all the states, asking them to purchase low-floor buses and retrofit old ones so that mass transport is made friendlier for disabled persons," he said.
The officer, flanked by his departmental colleagues, added that the ministry will also be enhancing the proportion of accessible and usable public documents.
Towards that end, 50 per cent of all government (central and state) websites will be made "fully" accessible by March, 2017.
It is also mulling to have at least 50 per cent of all public documents issued by governments meet accessibility standards by March, 2018.
"We will train and develop 200 additional sign language interpreters by March, 2018. Besides, we also have a target of enhancing the proportion of daily captioning and sign-language interpretation of public news programmes," Verma said.
Apart from achieving the targets for the three verticals, the government is in the process of developing a web portal and mobile application to create a crowd-sourcing platform for obtaining data relating to inaccessible places so that these may be made accessible.
Meanwhile, Verma said that the film festival will see the screening of 40 movies (feature/documentary/short films) in the competition section while popular films like 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and 'Margarita with a Straw' will be showcased as part of the non-competitive category.
Noted film personalities like Gulzar, directors Kabir Khan and Mahesh Limaye and child actors Harshali Malhotra and Gauri Gadgil are expected to be among those who attend the inaugural session of the festival.
The closing ceremony is expected to be attended by Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and film personalities like Vivek Oberoi and Sanjay Suri.
Verma said that the prime minister will also felicitate 52 individuals/organisations with national awards for their "outstanding" contributions towards the empowerment of PwDs.
According to Census 2011, there are 2.68 crore persons with disabilities in India, constituting 2.21 per cent of the country's population.
