Street Performance Raises Awareness on Walkability and Accessiblity

The performance

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/the-right-to-walk-with-dignity/article4053585.ece

A street performance of “To walk or not to walk” was staged by students of Curtin University, Australia, along with Smita Bharti Theatre Group at Nehru Place here on Tuesday to raise public awareness about problems being faced by pedestrians, as revealed by a survey undertaken in Nehru Place and Jor Bagh a few days ago.

The performance was also aimed at sensitising the public on the existing pedestrian infrastructure. According to Anjlee Agarwal of Samarthyam, which had conducted the “walkability” audits at the two places on October 27 along with Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) and Curtin University, Australia, the street performance highlighted the “right to walk”.

“We also focused on the required design standards and elements to make walkability safe, dignified and comfortable for all pedestrians and public transport users irrespective of their gender, age and disability,” said Ms. Agarwal.

The survey had earlier assessed “walkability” within a 500-metre radius of the two Delhi Metro stations. “During the survey, we had discovered a large number of problems in the area. For example, the stretch of road from Eros Hotel to Baha’i Temple is poorly lit and it is in areas such as these that issues like eve-teasing occur,” Ms. Agarwal said.

Collaborating for a common cause – Curtin University, Smita Bharati Theatre group, Samarthyam and CAI-Asia

Students and theatre professionals enact the importance of walkability

Apart from this, the walkability survey revealed that at most places the footpaths were too high, there were open manholes which posed a grave threat to pedestrians and encroachments affected the movement of pedestrians, she added.

Tagged as: cai-asia, curtin university, samarthyam, smita bharathi, street performance, walkability audits