Access and mobility rights.

'I CANNOT walk. The university administration has allocated a hostel room to me on the top floor and there are no lifts in our hostel. I sit on the stairs and drag myself up or down the stairs when I have to go back to my room or have to go to class or the cafeteria. So, I try to come down in the morning and not go up till after dinner. This is so difficult to do. Sometimes I just miss classes or meals on days when I do not have the strength to face multiple flights of stairs.'

This is a student at a local university. He cannot walk. There are rooms on the ground floor in his hostel too. Though he has applied multiple times for those rooms, he has not been allocated one on the ground floor. Instead, more politically connected or economically stronger students get those rooms.

What is clearly needed is public investment in the basic rights of movement for people with disabilities. Why does the university not have lifts or ramps? It is their duty to provide these; it is not an issue of extending courtesy or charity.

The student should be allocated a room on the ground floor, of course. This should be part of university regulations. And it is the right of the individual to have access to and the obligation of the institution to provide reasonable accommodation. But it does not happen in too many instances and too many places in Pakistan.

There is little public investment in the rights of movement for people with disabilities.

'The elevator that students can use does not stop on all floors; it goes to the top floor only. My classes are on the floors in between. I asked the management if I could use the elevator reserved for the faculty. The initial answer was a no. Eventually, they did relent.' Even where facilities are present and there are possibilities, getting reasonable accommodation is a struggle. It demands tenacity and perseverance from the concerned person, who, because of a lifetime of experience, might be reluctant to persist.

This lack of investment in public goods to ensure the rights of movement of persons with physical disabilities, a responsibility of both society and the state, shows a glaring disregard for individual rights and human dignity. A child we interviewed, who studies at a special institute that has been created for the education of children with physical disabilities, told us that though the institute has buses, it does not have ramps on buses, nor does the institute hire people who can help children get on the bus...