I am 15 years and 10 months old and I have been wheelchair bound for the past 7 years in a country with very less wheelchair accessibility. I live in the southern part of India which has better wheelchair accessibility than other parts of India but still 90% of the places here are not barrier free. I remember reading this article about wheelchair cricket in this same site. In that article one of the players Mr. Iqbal had said " disability is not in the persons with disability but is in the social structure" and this is infinite % true. Speaking about wheelchair cricket I am a cricket maniac and very passionate about the sport. I love playing and watching the game, but the stadiums in India are not so accessible. But this is the last thing I am worried about.
The thing I am worried about as I said earlier is wheelchair inaccessibility. After the physical and mental strain during the week I want relief during the weekend. The whole human race wants a break during the weekend and they go to some place(s) for 4 to 5 hours. We are denied this relief, our i.e every man and woman's right as most of these places are not a little bit accessible by wheels. As if being bound in a small place called a wheelchair is not enough the wheelchair itself is bound by inaccesible places. I can even bear the stares of thousands of people when I go out but I can't bear this fact. Without these reliefs the stress is just immense and this leads to other pains and strains throughout the year. I don't think the government is giving heed to our problems. They should at least make 30 to 40% of the places barrier free. The general people as I said earlier stare at us. If they are that concerned for us why don't they help us! I can tell whatever I want but I dont think there is a healthy chance of the government or any other organizations are gonna execute or even make these plans is there?
Then the third one is of course pain. I always suffer from pain hip down. There is the severe cramps on the hamstring muscle(I don't know if that's the right term) and there are the spasms that occur everywhere and then the scoliosis because of a thigh fracture. If i sit there is the leg pain and if i lie down there is the hip and tailbone pain.
I am not here to list out only my problems. I have some positives too. I can analyse things quite quickly, I feel. I also obtain the in-born talent in computer programming and cricket too, I know so. I have good studying ability because of which my school really helped me to continue studying till the seventh grade after which I went off for treatment. I am currently learning programming from e-tutorials.
The fourth is the boredom. Sitting in the same place for a long time really bores you. Some times the frustration goes so high that I cry for more than some time. But due to this boredom only I found the above mentioned in-born talents of analysing and computer programming. I sit hours together in my laptop resarching and learning more about my talents.
Writing this has brought me down to tears because I have poured all the problems which have and are disturbing me.
After all these problems I still have a lot of confidence left in me.
My request: If any of you reading this are in an organization or have influence in any supreme organizations, please talk to them about what I have written. This is my pleading request.
Thank You
