More funds needed to make DU campus barrier free

NEW DELHI: College life for 21-years-old Arpita (name changed), a Delhi University student, was a struggle. Confined to her wheelchair, she found it difficult to negotiate on the college campus. Her story is of one of the many differently-abled students who pass out every year from the university. Although slowly, things are likely to change now.
To make DU colleges accessible to all sorts of disabilities, an access audit, lasting more than three months, was conducted by the Equal Opportunity Council of the university along with Samarthyam, National centre for accessible environment, in October 2007.
The audit report suggested ways to improve accessability but many colleges find their hands tied due to lack of funds. To make colleges friendly for the differently-abled, infrastructural changes have to be carried out which involve a lot of investment. There is need of funds for building ramps, installing special softwares in computers, arranging Braille books and even installation of lifts to allow access to the upper floors of the building.
"Though minor efforts can be made by colleges, for making specific facilities available and turning the entire college friendly to the needs of differently-abled, they need funds from the University Grants Commission," says Dr Meera Ramachandran, Principal, Gargi college. Added Dr Inder Jeet, principal, College of Vocational Studies: "The UGC grants have to take care of the financial requirement. Without funds things can only become difficult."
Showing his determination to hasten the fund flow from UGC, Rama Kant Agnihotri of Equal Opportunity Council said: "The matter of issuing grants to colleges should receive high priority. We will make sure that Delhi University puts its best efforts to make things easy for the colleges."
toireporter@timesgroup.com