Published on: December 6, 2014

“Let us have a country that is barrier-free”, Dr Sara Varghese writes to us, after reading Pallium India’s November e-newsletter. She was responding to the news about George Thomas and Ashla Rani’s visit to the Hon’ble Governor of Kerala. She continues:

When we built our house in 1967, we did not know about the need for wheelchair-friendly houses. It was in 1989, when my husband’s wheelchair could not be taken into the bathroom that we realised the houses we build today are inconsiderate of the needs of the aged and the differently-abled. My friend, who is in a wheelchair, had to make changes to his house so that he can move about with ease. Another friend, who is also in a wheelchair, wishes to go to a resort with his wife. Is it possible at all? 

Let us have a country that is barrier-free, so that wheelchair-bound people can get into buses, visit museums, shopping malls, parks and resorts  – all on their own.

The newsletter had also carried an article titled “Seeing the Invisible Patient“, on how the care-givers of patients are ignored by everyone. Dr Sara Varghese shares her own experience:

No one usually bothers about the carer. Before my husband passed away, I was his carer for two years. Apart from two instances when Dr Rajagopal of Pallium India and the late Dr Pulimood, who was the Director of CMC Vellore, asked me about my health and my sleep, no one else ever enquired about me.

Thank you, Dr Sara Varghese, for sharing your thoughts with us.