Till date Nand Lal has filed about 15 RTIs.The recent RTI filed by him was asking the state government about the settlement of the homeless under implementation of the UN Habitat Agenda since 1996.
You may come across many RTI activists who are educated enough and know their rights also, but 55-year-old Nand Lal is an example of how only awareness can also help you know your rights as a citizen. Nand Lal is a whistle-blower and social worker engaged with the plight of the homeless in Delhi. He has been waging a silent war on injustice to the homeless for about 20 years.
Speaking with iamin, Nand Lal recalls how in 1992, he came to the National Capital to seek employment opportunities but Polio forced him to beg on the streets instead. Lal is also a homeless. He started working for homeless people in 2003 when he got employed with ActionAid’s programme as caretaker of a night shelter. Ask him why he doesn’t live in a homeless shelter, he points out to the most basic fact: they are not disabled-friendly.
To seek answers to his questions, Lal began filing RTIs in 2014. The recent RTI filed by him was asking the state government about the settlement of the homeless under implementation of the UN Habitat Agenda since 1996. A United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development is going to take place in October 17-20, 2016 in Quito, Ecuador in this regard. Till date he has filed about 15 RTIs. The issues he has raised range from Delhi government’s welfare schemes for the disabled and homeless, permanent housing to the employment schemes.
Polio doesn’t let him walk but you will see him propped-up on his tri-cycle and traveling all around Delhi to help those who need him. In his tri-cycle, you will find a bottle of water, his pen and cut outs of articles from various newspapers. Moreover, he recently got it fitted with an engine, all by himself. Nand Lal has never let his disability get the better of him.
Lal has also met Chief Minister Delhi Arvind Kejriwal and requested him to make the night shelters more disabled friendly.
For the longer version of the report, click here
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