Ordeal the blind can do without

BANGALORE: The physically challenged dread to walk here.
A stretch of road in JP Nagar has turned into a nightmare for about 100 students of Samarthanam School for the Blind. Another school, Mobility India, is less than 200 metres away, and its physically challenged students face similar problems. Students and staffers of the school in JP Nagar 1st and 1st A Cross, II Stage, have stumbled over and fallen into the potholes many times.There are over 70 large and small potholes over a stretch of 70 metres. Among those who suffered is a blind school staffer, K N Chandrashekar, who represented India in international cricket matches. He fell into a huge ditch in the middle of the road recently. He had to call his friend and fellow cricketer, Shekar Nayak, to help him out. Nayak is no ordinary cricketer. During the World Cup cricket (blind) December 2006, he was adjudged the Man of the Series. Both cricketers also played the World Cup in 2002. The bad road is not only a nightmare for the blind who routinely slip, fall and skid on this stretch.
They also get splashed by slush from passing vehicles whose drivers do not realise these pedestrians are blind. It turns worse when it rains.
The road is used not only by the blind, but also by the physically challenged from Mobility India's rehabilitation centre. The centre has been funded by NGOs from the UK, Switzerland and Germany. "Our 46 physically challenged staffers avoid using this stretch," said administration manager V Jaya. Those who walk with crutches or support obviously cannot negotiate the challenging contours of this road.
Mahantesh G Kivdasannanavar, managing trustee of the school, Samarthanam, who is also partially visually-impaired, said: "I would request the BBMP authorities to relay the road here as as soon as possible." Shylaja Mariswamy, a final-year degree student, said: "I fell on that stretch once last year. It has always been in bad shape." M Shilpa, computer section faculty at the blind school, said: "The white cane that we use does not tell us if the potholes in the road are filled with water and how soft the earth is. It's inevitable that people slip and fall."
A visiting British development consultant, Adam Pickering, who has been at the blind school since September, remarked sarcastically: "It is not about how many potholes there are on this road, but about how much of road there is among these potholes."
bansy.kalappa@timesgroup.com