New Delhi: The government has invited suggestions from the public and other stakeholders on guidelines on accessible and inclusive piped water supply for persons with disabilities and other population groups with access challenges. The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation has prepared draft guidelines to provide inputs to the “Harmonized Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Persons with Disabilities and Elderly Persons”.
In a notice, the Disabilities Affairs Department said the draft of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Amendment) Rules, 2023 on the Guidelines on Accessible and inclusive piped water supply for persons with disabilities and other population groups with access challenges and Accessibility standards for Community Toilets in Rural Areas are hereby notified, inviting comments from the general public and other stakeholders.
The department has invited objections and suggestions to the draft guidelines by October 30.
The draft document suggests information for designing an accessible and inclusive piped water supply system for persons with disabilities and other population groups with access challenges.
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Those include people with temporary access challenges, such as pregnant women or mothers with young children or individuals who are suffering from short-term physical ailments, as they too face similar barriers while accessing drinking water facilities.
The document compares the existing provisions of various guidelines and suggests provisions for an inclusive design of piped drinking water supply at the household, community and institutional levels, including at public offices and places.
Different facilities, such as the anganwadi centres, primary, secondary and residential schools, health and wellness centres, primary and community health centres, civil and district hospitals, panchayat offices and marketplaces, are covered under the guidelines.
The features in the guidelines include baby-friendly water points (height, location, ease of access), handrails or grab bars at drinking water points for those suffering from mobility issues, Braille indication on taps, automatic sensors, and use of adequate colours or tonal contrast between walls for people with low vision or partial blindness.
The guidelines also suggest adjusting the height and design of water points for differently-abled people. The guidelines said,
The height and design of the water point need to be adjusted for children and people with disabilities. For children, the height should be between 500-700 mm and for wheelchair-users, less than 850 mm.
They said,
In practice, this will require either two water points set at different heights or one flexible modular unit with two water points.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
