ONE bright morning a young blind man steps out of his small apartment in Shadman Town, climbing down four flights of stairs. Tapping his white cane, he confidently walks down the road where the buses and other vehicles are running. This blind student is going to take his BA examination. Today he has an important paper - English Compulsory. He has studied hard and hopes he’ll do well.
Now he reaches the edge of the road and stops. Of course, he can’t cross the busy street by himself. He waves and puts up his white stick to attract people’s attention. No one comes forward to help him cross the road. They do see him holding his white cane but perhaps they don’t have enough time to take care of him. They don’t even bother to ask him what he wants.
The young blind man reads the time in his braille watch and gives a sigh of relief. There is still a lot of time before the examination starts. In fact, he has left home well ahead of time. He keeps standing there waiting for someone to come to help him. Minutes tick on. Now he starts worrying about being late.
At last an elderly man comes to him. “Do you want to cross the road?” he asks.
“Yes, sir. Please help me!” he feels very happy as if he has found a treasure. In a couple of minutes the blind student stands on the opposite side of the road waiting for the bus. Whenever, a bus stops, he moves towards it. Seeing the blind man the conductor calls to the driver, beating the side of the vehicle, “Quick, go on driver”. The bus moves on and the sightless man has to step back.
It happens every time. No bus stops long enough so he could board it. The bus passengers and the people around him behave indifferently. They don’t ask the conductors to let the blind person to get on the bus. The sightless student is frustrated as time passes by. It is actually getting late now. Once again, he feels the time. “Oh no!” he cries in dismay. “It is too late!” He can’t reach the examination centre in time. He gets irritated, as he has missed his today’s paper for which he has worked so hard.
This is only one example. Many blind people face the same problem when they move about in big cities like Karachi where buses are important means of transport.
The National Federation for the Welfare of the Blind, which has been giving practical help to the blind in all fields of life throughout the country, expresses its great concern about this intricate problem. The National Federation suggests the following steps to overcome this cute problem faced by visually impaired people.
1. During their training the bus drivers and conductors must be instructed that they take special care of blind passengers. After all, they are part of our society and must not be ignored.
2. There must be some kind of penalty for a bus driver or conductor if he doesn’t cooperate with blind passengers or behaves indifferently.
3. The bus owners should at times give instructions to their employees to help and take care of blind passengers.
4. Through radio and TV the normal citizens should be educated of the problems faced by the blind. They should be told to assist blind people when they are moving about or riding the buses.
5. The significance of the white cane should be propagated through different media so that sighted citizens understand the need of sightless persons and come forward to their help.
The National Federation understands and hopes that the problem will be mitigated to a grate extent if the above-mentioned steps are sincerely followed.
ONE bright morning a young blind man steps out of his small apartment in Shadman Town, climbing down four flights of stairs. Tapping his white cane, he confidently walks down the road where the buses and other vehicles are running. This blind student is going to take his BA examination. Today he has an important paper - English Compulsory. He has studied hard and hopes he’ll do well.
