In 2017, I was approached by a young disability activist, Nipun Malhotra, who wanted to know if we could challenge the Delhi State Government’s proposed decision to acquire thousands of inaccessible public-transport buses. Nipun himself suffers from arthrogryposis, which severely limits his ability to move without a wheelchair and a modified van.

Our goal was to ensure that no person with a locomotor disability should be excluded from public transportation. In India, there is a lot of stigma associated with disability – so much so, that some parents hide disabled kids at home and do not provide opportunities for education or social growth. The lack of accessible public transport only compounds their social ostracization.

We filed a ‘Public Interest Litigation’ (PIL) petition in the Delhi High Court on behalf of every disabled person in Delhi, challenging the acquisition of non-low-floor accessible buses as being violative of the disabled community’s guaranteed fundamental right to life (Article 21 of the Indian Constitution) and statutory rights of accessibility guaranteed under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

The Court agreed with our interpretation of not only Articles, 21 and 19(1)(d) but also our argument that Article 15 of the Indian Constitution prohibited discrimination on the basis of ‘place of birth’ – a ‘legal right,’ which we argued would attach to those born with congenital defects inside the womb (thus expanding the meaning of ‘place of birth’ to include ‘the womb’). 

The end result was that the Delhi Government was compelled to state on affidavit before the Court, that it would not only purchase low-floor accessible buses going forth but that it would retrofit existing standard-floor buses with hydraulic ramps.