Farhat Rasheed
CHALLENGES give room to opportunities. I do have certain physical limitations and have many challenges but I always create opportunities out of these challenges.
Being a wheelchair bound person and having a Gold Medal in my MBA, I have never let my disabilities overshadow my abilities. It is important to accept that people are not disabled, rather differently-abled.
Covid-19 has completely changed the world and forced people to accept the new normal. People have been pushed out of their comfort zones to adapt to the fast changing scenarios.
Be it wearing masks wherever you go, working from home, video meetings and travelling which has turned into a major stress task! Regrettably people are forced to change when they themselves are impacted by it and not thinking about society as a general.
Covid-19 on one hand has changed the entire lifestyle but on the positive side it has taught us a lot. God has opened eyes of many who were just running for their own purpose and forgotten about humanity.
Today I would like to talk about a simple and basic life experience – eating out at restaurants.
Before the pandemic I had access to only a handful of restaurants as majority of restaurants had steep staircases.
As a wheelchair bound person, I have certain sentiments and no person likes to be lifted up. But life works in strange ways.
This pandemic and the following lockdown SOPs forced all restaurants to open outdoors and even on public roads.
I now have the opportunity to dine at some of the most famous restaurants, such as Okra, LOCO, Chop Chop Wok, etc which I was unfairly deprived of.
I can understand it’s difficult to serve outside but to run the business, they made all the efforts. But have they never thought how when everything gets back to normal once again, how do they intend on serving the wheelchair bound people when they haven’t made their outlets accessible by building ramps? This may not seem like a big issue but every small thing counts in changing our society as its all linked to changing mindsets of those around us.
Having this in mind, a group of young individuals headed by myself, with strong resolve and vision took the first step and initiated a Project in the year 2004 in the name of “SHOW YOU CARE” (SYC).
We are endeavoring to create social awareness to provide proper accessibilities for the physically challenged people of our society.
Our objective is to change the mindset and attitude of people towards the differently able people and to impress upon the concerned authorities to make it mandatory for all public places to have adequate facilities for the wheelchair bound people.
DHA being newly developed & modern area is lacking behind in providing access to wheelchair bound people.
Where are DHA and KBCA laws? KBCA and DHA laws states that facilities like ramps and elevators are mandatory in public places, however there is no execution and no penalties, thus people simply bypass this law.
It’s sad that the awareness/implementation is not there even in our literary circle. Franchises such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Mc Donalds, Hardees, Nandoos, etc open following the same recipe, standard and interior while infrastructure is ignored.
They follow no SOPs of providing access to wheelchair bound people which they do it mandatorily in other countries.
It’s not just DHA, my dream is to make entire Karachi; infact entire Pakistan wheelchair accessible.
Abroad no building plan is passed without having proper access, special people are given priority and treated as normal citizens. Even public transport should have wheelchair access.
In Pakistan, public and private sector both can play a very important role. Public sector can pass a legislation making mandatory to provide wheelchair access and private sector should make it part of corporate social responsibility and can work on their own buildings and motivate special children to have education, jobs and socialize.
With your support we can change mindsets and make physically challenged people an important part of our society.
Being a private entrepreneur, I strongly endorse this noble cause and would urge you to make your house, offices, restaurants, parks, schools or any place which you own to make wheelchair accessible by providing ramps and lifts.
It’s a basic human right. A ramp costs only Rs 8,000 approx. It’s a one-time bill of a family when they dine out. We spend millions to construct buildings but do not keep in consideration requirement of wheelchair bound people.
This is just a matter of mindset to make your place accessible. Please join hands and help special people live independent, normal life. Special people are not “Disable” they are “Differently-Able”.
Your one step can bring a smile on many faces. Make our society inclusive for all. “Don’t just say you care, Show You Care”.
