Jakarta not friendly to people with disabilities

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a city where the basic rights of citizens are frequently violated, daily life for people with disabilities is worse.

Visually disabled Faqih said he survived commuting around the city only by luck.

"Neither motorists nor pedestrians are friendly to the disabled. It's not only that they refuse to help us, they even put our lives in danger," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Faqih said he had been side-swiped many times by speeding cars while on a crosswalk, although he had taken the necessary precautions by raising his walking-stick to signal his condition.

"I have been injured several times from such incidents, and I've had to replace my walking-stick many times, as they were crushed by vehicles."

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that disabled people make up 10 percent of Indonesia's 220 million- strong population.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, however, provides a figure of only 3.11 percent.

Government Regulation No. 43/1998 stipulates that by the end of 2003, all government buildings must provide access for the disabled.

The city administration has yet to comply with the regulation, as seen in the absence of public facilities for the disabled, even at City Hall and City Council.

On major thoroughfares, there are no accessible crosswalk buttons or singing traffic lights to help people in wheelchairs or the blind in crossing roads or intersections.

Only the newest sidewalks are equipped with Braille.

Shopping mall, restaurant, bus terminal and railway station managements apparently do not bother to provide access for the disabled. If such facilities exist, most are in a state of disrepair and poor maintenance.

In Gambir railway station, Central Jakarta, one of the pilot- project sites providing access for disabled people started in 2000, people on wheelchair must notify the station administration office before using the special lift, which remains inactive.

"The elevator (for the disabled) is turned off most of the time because the maintenance and electricity costs are high," Asmadi, an official with a railway station, told the Post.

"Besides, other 'normal' passengers might use it, thinking it was a regular elevator."

In one of the city's oldest shopping center, Sarinah, Central Jakarta, an American restaurant chain had built a handicapped ramp, but the public has not respected its special use, and has become an ordinary passage where many young people loiter.

A security guard at the shopping center said apart from the access ramp built by the restaurant, the building management had built no facilities for the disabled.

"Disabled people have to count on their families or friends for assistance if they want to shop here," he said.