This Model is Making Indian Train Stations Accessible to All

Brut India

After a horrifying experience in the Indian railways, she is fighting to make trains accessible to all.   Virali Modi told Brut India how she refuses to let her wheelchair slow her down.

Transcript

00:00We all have names, so why label us or why stereotype us into that category as disabled

00:29or Divyang or specially abled or whatever terminology you want to use, why not just

00:34call her by her names, like Hi, my name is Virali Moody, I use a wheelchair, who even

00:40cares, does it matter?

00:42I remember this so vividly, there was a ramp there, I got to the ramp, first of all, it

00:59was crowded with people, it was submerged in urine stains and betel leaf stains and

01:07people were just sitting there and standing there and the ramp had holes in it, they were

01:12just staring at me as if I'm this weird person or this person that's just escaped from the

01:17circus or something.

01:26I was made to sit on the lap of the guy that was holding my legs, which was weird and I

01:34mean I didn't say anything, I said okay, whatever gets the job done, now this guy, the one that

01:38was holding me from my shoulders, he lifts me up again but he wraps his arms around my

01:44breasts and he starts groping me in the public and there was pin drop silence in that compartment

01:54and in that coach, there were people there, they were watching him do this, he didn't

01:59he kept groping me, he kept groping my breasts, molesting me, no one said anything and I was

02:06scared to say anything because I thought if I did, he would drop me on the floor.

02:20I got a message from the district regional manager of Kerala, the Kerala Railways, he

02:27got in touch with me and with him, right now we've made over 6 stations disabled friendly,

02:33we haven't renovated these stations, all we've done is implemented portable ramps and small

02:39aisle size wheelchairs that fit into the compartment of the train.

02:45We did that individually without the government support.

02:58I came out of the coma on my birthday at the exact same time that I was born but I was

03:05paralysed from the neck down afterwards.

03:08I battled depression, I battled, I tried committing suicide twice, not because I wasn't accepting

03:16of myself but because other people weren't accepting of me.

03:27We need to cast people with disabilities, actresses, models, everything, we need disabled

03:39people, we need them to work.

03:42It's been difficult because not a lot of people want models or actresses with disabilities

03:47even if the role calls for it.

03:49I think it's because of the ease of having an able-bodied actor so they don't really

03:55have to provide a lot of help and a lot of support.

03:59There is no disability because everyone has a disability in some way or the other.

04:05So let's stop stereotyping people, let's stop labelling people and let's start treating

04:11them with a bit of dignity and integrity.

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