PLANNING STRATEGIES FOR INCORPORATING ACCESSIBILITY FOR DIFFERENTLY ABLED IN THIRUVANANTHAPURAM CITY

Abstract

India is rapidly urbanizing and growing in population. Even though India has a population of over 1.36 billion people, approximately 2.2 percent of the population suffers from a serious mental or physical handicap. Targeted measures for the health and well-being of individuals with disabilities are becoming increasingly important in today's progressive society when integration and inclusion of all people are highlighted as the key to sustainable development. The Smart City Initiative aims to enable local area development and harness technology, particularly technology that leads to Smart results, to boost economic growth and improve people's quality of life. This initiative provides for the implementation of smart solutions to aid in incorporating disability access in planning. Targeted strategies for the inclusion of disability access in Smart city Mission in required. This thesis identifies the parameters of disability accessibility and focuses on the recommendation of strategies to incorporate this accessibility in the Smart City Mission. The study includes an assessment of government initiatives and campaigns, strategies of Smart City Mission, Guidelines of Accessible India Campaign, and the best practices followed in incorporating disability accessibility in Urban Planning. The city of Thiruvananthapuram is delineated as the study area owing to the largest population of disabled people as per the census data. Furthermore, the implementation of Smart City Mission projects presents the best opportunity to include accessibility for differently abled people in the development process. The study area is analyzed based on the identified parameters and Key hot spots which require focused initiatives are identified. Both administrative recommendations and spatial planning proposals are proposed to increase the overall accessibility of Thiruvananthapuram city, which enables the differently abled people to access the rich cultural, heritage, administrative and recreational amenities and facilities of the study area.