Assisting in making Indian cities accessible, inclusive

All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) in collaboration with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and with the support from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) fund of the UK Government, is implementing the project “Building Accessible, Safe & inclusive Indian Cities (BASllC)”. The main objective is to make Indian cities accessible and inclusive for all, especially for people with special abilities

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he principal goal of BASIIC is to build the capacities of Indian cities to be sensitive and responsive to the needs of the people with disabilities (PwDs). The project aims to holistically build the capacity of practitioners to plan and implement tenets of universal access and inclusiveness. AIILSG through this project, has curated a detailed fourmodule course on “Fundamentals of Disability Inclusion”. The project commenced in January 2021 and got completed in March 2022.

Online course on disability inclusion

AIILSG in collaboration with the NIUA curated a Course on “Fundamentals of Disability Inclusion”. The four-module course provides a 360-degree perspective around Disability Inclusion and helps the city stakeholders deep dive into tools & methods of achieving universal design at urban level. The aim is to familiarise the city officials on the importance of achieving universal design within an urban ecosystem.

AIILSG under this project has also gathered the key stakeholders working on disabilities; on a common platform and has demonstrated innovative solutions – technologies, programs and service delivery models in the realm of universal access through a series of Training & Capacity Building programs.

Training programs

Under this project, till date, AIILSG has successfully completed the training programs across 5 Cities namely Varanasi, Bhilai, Pune, Bhopal and Ahmedabad. More than 100 officials attended the training programs. Additionally, an E-dialogue on “Building cities for all- A perspective on Disability Inclusion” has also been organized.

Sr. No City 1 Varanasi No of participants 22

2 Bhilai 25

3 Bhopal

21 4 Pune 20 5 Ahmedabad 20 Training, under BASIIC, attended by the officials of Pune Municipal Corporation

Training need assessment

City Training Needs assessment conducted across 30 Indian cities to collect evidence on city’s perception towards Universal design and inclusive practices, and further design tailored relevant training modules and resources basis learning needs from the city officials, a self-paced course on “Fundamentals of Disability Inclusion was created. The course is live on nulp.niua.org.

Highlights

» The project through the course and the training programs has helped the city stakeholders learn to diagnose city’s level of accessibility, safety and inclusivity and: » Identify key barriers impacting vulnerable population and Promote equitable, lasting and cost effective measures to remove barriers in the future. » Gain working knowledge of how to conduct an access and safety audit » Improve city’s performance by addressing accessibility and inclusivity related issues » Adopt national and global best practices to tackle the issues and challenges faced by PwDs in a city.