Wheelchair user asked to vacate Bengaluru apartment, shares her experience

A Bengaluru woman has spoken about the difficulty of finding a wheelchair-accessible flat (Representational image)

A Bengaluru-based woman working in a multinational corporation has spoken up about the difficulty of finding a wheelchair-accessible apartment in the city. Twitter user Mrunmaiy said she was asked to vacate her current apartment a few weeks ago, sparking a long search for a new home.

Mrunmaiy said her current apartment, which she has been asked to vacate, is located inside a campus that also houses her office. “Six years ago we were blessed to know that my workplace is in a campus that also has residential apartments, mall, hospital, school etc. The fact that we had to pay higher rent than nearby buildings, was an easy compromise,” she wrote on the microblogging platform X.

Six years ago we were blessed to know that my workplace is in a campus that also has residential apartments, mall, hospital, school etc. The fact that we had to pay higher rent than nearby buildings, was an easy compromise.

— Mrunmaiy (@mrunmaiy) October 22, 2023

The higher rent was justified for Mrunmaiy because it meant she did not have to travel on the road to get to her office. “I did not have to go to the ordeal of being lifted and shifted into a cab in the absence of accessible vehicle,” she wrote.

For the Bengaluru resident, finding another accessible apartment in the city has become an uphill task. “It's alarming to know that many brokers and homeowners think that a couple of steps can be passed off as accessible,” she said, noting that her wheelchair weighs 130 kg and cannot be lifted up, even for a couple of steps. “When I say that I need a step free entrance, it actually has to be without steps, or with the facility of a ramp,” she said.

Other than the problem of steps and staircases, there are other accessibility issues with Indian apartments. In some cases, the door to the bathroom is extremely narrow and does not allow a wheelchair user enough space to enter. In other places, the elevator is so small that a wheelchair and Mrunmaiy’s caretaker cannot enter it together.

In many Indian apartments, the door of the bathroom is extremely narrow. No surprises, that being a quadriplegic, I take my bath also in a wheelchair. Hence, the door of the bathroom has to be at least 25 inches wide for me to get inside along with my shower-wheelchair. — Mrunmaiy (@mrunmaiy) October 22, 2023

“Some bathrooms have a wash basin as soon as you enter, and some have the commode, blocking the entrance. In some cases, there is a huge wardrobe right outside the bathroom door, making manoeuvring my way inside the bathroom difficult,” she added.

Mrunmaiy says she is now limited to apartments in bigger gated communities that charge a premium rent. Her experience highlights the challenges of living with a disability in a country where accessibility is not a priority when building infrastructure.

Recently, a Mumbai-based disability activist also brought the issue of accessibility to limelight after she tweeted about having to be carried up two flights of stairs in her wheelchair so she could get married at the Registrar’s Office.