ANSFRID SMARTCARE NEWSLETTER, APRIL 2023

3 of the BEST disabled and elder friendly tourist cities in India.

DELHI : Elder & disabled-friendly arrangements in tourist spots like Humayun’s Tomb, Qutub Minar and Red Fort. Lifts and Braille facilities at Delhi Metro . The metro stations also have extra-wide flap gates for travellers on wheelchairs.

KOCHI : The Kochi Fort in Kerala became India’s first disabled-friendly heritage site in 2016. Over 28,000 government offices in Kerala’s Kannur district have become free from barriers. Kerala became the first elderly and disabled-friendly state in India in 2019 with provision of facilities for the disabled in over 100 tourism centers.

AGRA : The Taj Mahal, is equipped with elder & disabled-friendly facilities. Other forts in the historic city like Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri also have similar facilities. Wheelchairs and golf carts at Agra Fort can carry disabled tourists to Diwan-e-Aam. Fatehpur Sikri has Braille boards, dedicated toilets and other facilities.

The oldest Padma Shri winner

The oldest man to be conferred with the Padma Shri award, Swami Sivananda is a monk from Varanasi. Born on 8 August 1896, in Sylhet district (now in Bangladesh) of undivided India. He follows a simple belief , "The world is my home, its people are my fathers and mothers, to love and serve them is my religion." The 125-year-old has lived a disciplined and simple life with early morning yoga, oil-free boiled diet and selfless service to mankind. He stands strong enough to perform yoga for hours and sleeps on a mat on the floor, using a wooden slab as a pillow.

First Personal Emergency Response System

Wilhelm Hormann invented the first personal emergency response system (PERS) in the early 1970’s to help the sick, elderly, and disabled people who lived alone to call for help in an emergency . The device included a pendant to be worn around the neck. When pressed, it sent a signal to a machine that was attached to a rotary land phone. This would send a pre-programmed message to a pre-determined number. The single contact was the biggest drawback to the first personal emergency response systems. The contact could only get the message if they were home. But this surely set the stage for many more improvisations and extremely useful devices that were invented later.

(Source : https://www.alert-1.com/)