No country for physically challenged - Kathmandu

Ram Bahadur Tamang of Thimi in Bhaktapur still has a vivid memory of how his friends visited his house and how they had fun together. Only three years ago, the-31-year-old was making decent living selling vegetables in the capital valley. But a bus accident one fine day suddenly changed course of his life forever.


He suffered spinal cord injury, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down. As a result, he is now in a wheelchair. And it has left him struggling for rest of his life. “I was not only disabled by the accident, but it also crippled my social and economic life,” says Tamang, who no more sells vegetables. He said his life has witnessed a sea change after the tragedy.

“When I earned good money, my friends and relatives often visited me. And they even invited me to their home. But any of my old friends hardly care about me now,” adds he, adding, he feels lonely now that all his friends and relatives have forsaken him.

He was returning from Khasa, a Tibetan town that borders with Nepal, to Kathmandu on that fated day. “As the bus was jam-packed, I was just leaning on the door. Suddenly the bus veered off the road, leaving me along with other passengers severely injured,” he recounts the ordeal.

He was the sole bread earner of his family; but his physical disability has worsened his family´s economic condition. “First, I cannot do what I want to do due to my physical condition. Second, physical infrastructures like road and buildings are not disable friendly, which makes almost impossible to apply for any job,” he complains.

The only respite he now has is that Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Center at Sanga in Bhaktapur has appointed him as a motivational counselor who gives motivational speeches to patients living with spinal cord injuries. He also teaches spinal cord injury patients various income generating skills like bag weaving and candle making, among others.

But the fact remains that the one who tries to motivate others to carry on with life continues to languish in loneliness and economic hardship

“Life is too difficult with disability as, tragically, only a small section of people understand us,” says he. Sarangi, a traditional Nepali musical instrument, has been his best friend in his largely lonely life.

Tamang is not alone to suffer serious injury in road accidents in the country.

Over the past nine years, cases of serious injury are rising alarmingly. Around 4,000 people are suffering serious injury in road accidents since last three years, making majority of them physically disabled for life.

Like Tamang, the physically challenged people are facing various social, economic, mental and emotional crises.

The data provided by Metropolitan Traffic Police Division of the last ten fiscal years shows that the number of seriously injured people in road accidents is alarmingly increasing since 2008.

In the fiscal year 2012-13, staggering 3,986 people had suffered serious injuries in the 13,582 accidents that the traffic police have recorded. And in the fiscal year 2011-12, people suffering serious injuries were slightly highly – altogether 4,018 people in total 14,297 accidents. The same number of people were seriously injured in road mishaps in the fiscal year 2010-11, according to the police data.

According to the Global Status Report on Road Safety-2013 prepared by the World Health Organization, those who are most vulnerable to road traffic accidents are motorcyclists followed by pedestrians and buses in the developing countries such as Nepal.

Prakash Shrestha, administrative chief of the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Center, said majority of the seriously injured people suffer from spinal cord injuries followed by amputation of body parts especially of the hands and legs, and head injuries. “Among the vehicle users, motorcyclists suffer the most when it comes to spinal cord injuries in road accidents.

“People are being handicapped for the rest of their life in road mishaps. Every year, a large number of working force of the country is becoming physically disabled. However, the government is least concerned about protecting the working force,” said Mukunda Raj Satyal, a public transport management expert.

Majority of the traffic road victims facing severe injuries are in the economically valuable age group of 15-40 years, according to WHO report. Population of the age-group is the active population of the country.

National Road Safety Council yet to be revived

Though the government has envisioned reestablishment of the National Road Safety Council under its ten-year Road Safety Action Plan, it is yet to establish the council for improving traffic management and ensure road safety in the country.

A National Road Safety Council was set up during the nineties but the body has been defunct for quite some years now.

The government had then mulled reviving the council as part of the Road Safety Action Plan in line with the decision of UN Road Safety Collaboration, a multilateral body to address road safety issues globally, to observe the Decade of Action for Road Safety from 2011 to 2020.

As Nepal is a active member of the United Nations, the government has already prepared its own Road Safety Action Plan 2013-20. The action plan has proposed a detailed plan of road safety.

“Unlike the agency in the past, the proposed council is likely to be a high-level road management board set up to improve traffic management and enhance road safety in the country,” said Sudharshan Prasad Adhikari, former Director General of Department of Transportation Management (DoTM). He has been replaced by Kashi Raj Dahal to the post recently.

According to officials at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the council will include all the line ministries and departments such as the Home Ministry, Finance Ministry, Department of Roads and DoTM among others which are directly and indirectly responsible for traffic management in the country.

The council will also have expanded jurisdiction and resources and develop a national road-safety strategy and implementation modality for reducing road accidents.

Mukunda Raj Satyal, a public transportation engineer, said that the government should immediately set up the council as road accidents are haphazardly increasing in the country with the expansion of roads and development of other infrastructures.

“It is the high time the government establish the council. It will show that the government is serious about minimizing road accidents in the country,” added he.



Source : Sarokar , 7th June 2014