Accessibility in urban spaces

Abstract

Sustainability in the urban context means much more than environmental and planning efficiency. To make a place sustainable is also to make it equitable to people with differences, maintain and foster rich cultural connections and relationships. The differences extend to class, color, race, caste, gender, disability. Truly sustainable spaces are also accessible spaces. Urban resilience, which by definition enfolds sustainability, is an opportunity to include the agenda of accessibility. This is more so in the Indian context where urban development more often than not is inconsistent in adopting accessibility, and accessible spaces are patchy and disconnected. If the concept of jugaad as indigenous innovation fits in with urban resilience, it needs to, by extension, be examined with respect to sustainable and accessible environments. The essay will examine the question: where does jugaad figure when urbanism is viewed through the lens of accessibility? What is the potential and limits of jugaad in this context? It is intriguing to explore jugaad as bricolage, in Claude Levi-Strauss' dichotomy of the bricoleur and the scientist, which extrapolates to various other relevant dichotomies such as local/global, mythic/scientific, particular/universal. The essay also examines the history of accessibility in Indian cities, setting up the present need for this critical component of any sustainable, equitable environment. It then examines jugaad's potential and limits in the making of accessible urban spaces. The essay is an open-ended inquiry into the subject, sparked by a combination of factors: my Indian origin and experience of living in India for over two decades, scholarly graduate study of the mythicity of Indian cities, and my personal experience of participating in the daily care of my son, a young adult with developmental disabilities.