The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has approved a Grant-in-Aid to the University of Hyderabad (UoH) for creation of Barrier-Free Environment and other facilities for persons with disabilities.
A total grant sanctioned for the purpose is nearly Rs 6 Crore and the first installment of over Rs.4 Crore has been released this financial year. This grant has come under the schemes arising out of the implementation of persons with disabilities (Equal Opportunities Protection of Rights and Full Participation Act, 1995-SIPDA).
The grant given will be utilized for installing 18 lifts in fifteen buildings on the campus. Each lift needs to be fitted to accommodate wheel chairs in accordance with the Bureau of Indian Standards. Other fittings like auditory signals, Braille signings and accessible control panels and other works relating to creation of Barrier-Free Environment and other facilities for persons with disabilities also need to be done.
It may be mentioned that after the Vice-Chancellor’s initiative to make the campus disabled-friendly, a disability audit was conducted on the campus by Shivani Gupta of Delhi-based AccessAbility. This was done for the first time by a Central University and the proposal sent by UoH has been approved by the Ministry.
The buildings that have been identified include Admin Building, Chief Warden’s Office, Academic-(Extension to Admin), Science Complex, Social Sciences, MBA Building, USIC level-II + M.Sc Electronics, Humanities, School of Life Sciences, Centre for Integrated Studies, Library Building, A.I Laboratory, New-Lecture Hall Complex, Networking Laboratory (Chemistry) and New Science Complex (Chemistry).
The project is expected to be completed within 12 months. (INN)