Sminu Jindal, managing director of Jindal Saw Ltd and founder of the NGO Svayam, accompanies us to the proposed smart city of Faridabad in Haryana.
It is a special mission, a reality check on accessibility. Sminu Jindal, managing director of Jindal Saw Ltd and founder of the NGO Svayam, accompanies us to the proposed smart city of Faridabad in Haryana. Sector 15 with its pedestrian pathways is one of its better developed areas.
Pointing out to the pathways on the road Ms Sminu Jindal says, "It is otherwise a nicely built pathway once you come up but coming up as you can see is pretty dangerous and there are not enough curve cuts for a person to go down and go up and some places it is broken, so it can be very hazardous at night for somebody to just even bicycle along it.
"Accessibility is two pronged- one is enforcement which plays a major role in upkeeping it and the other is citizens must not misuse what is given to them," she says.
The story of the Sector 15 market is very much the same.
The market has motorbikes parked on the footpath which impedes the use of wheelchair users.
Ms Sminu Jindal realises how almost every shop in the market is anything but disable friendly, "Somebody here has been very smart, they have encroached the complete pedestrian pathway by making this grand staircase and if I went to the shopkeeper and asked him why is it that they have a staircase here and no ramp, they will say that they do not have space."
"If this is the angle at which I am going to go up, by the time I reach the top I will be down again," she says as she tries using a ramp which is too steep to use.
A barrier free environment helps all, senior citizens, families with children, women, apart from those with disabilities.
Clearly no city can be truly smart unless it is also accessible.
"It's when people feel included, that accessibility is there, makes a nation smarter. I think they are realising that all these things do matter and ultimately they are the beneficiaries of a better plan and a smarter city; with that hope, we live every day," she says.
Pointing out to the pathways on the road Ms Sminu Jindal says, "It is otherwise a nicely built pathway once you come up but coming up as you can see is pretty dangerous and there are not enough curve cuts for a person to go down and go up and some places it is broken, so it can be very hazardous at night for somebody to just even bicycle along it.
"Accessibility is two pronged- one is enforcement which plays a major role in upkeeping it and the other is citizens must not misuse what is given to them," she says.
The story of the Sector 15 market is very much the same.
The market has motorbikes parked on the footpath which impedes the use of wheelchair users.
Ms Sminu Jindal realises how almost every shop in the market is anything but disable friendly, "Somebody here has been very smart, they have encroached the complete pedestrian pathway by making this grand staircase and if I went to the shopkeeper and asked him why is it that they have a staircase here and no ramp, they will say that they do not have space."
"If this is the angle at which I am going to go up, by the time I reach the top I will be down again," she says as she tries using a ramp which is too steep to use.
A barrier free environment helps all, senior citizens, families with children, women, apart from those with disabilities.
Clearly no city can be truly smart unless it is also accessible.
"It's when people feel included, that accessibility is there, makes a nation smarter. I think they are realising that all these things do matter and ultimately they are the beneficiaries of a better plan and a smarter city; with that hope, we live every day," she says.
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