Why public spaces in India are a minefield for children with intellectual disabilities

In February, a video of a mother shouting at security guards at a park in Delhi went viral on social media.

The mother, Mona Mishra, got into an argument with the guards after they allegedly stopped her five-year-old daughter from playing on a swing at the city’s Sunder Nursery. In the video, the guard can be seen saying that the child’s “brain is not fine” and that therefore she could not get on the ride. The parents said that they were then even asked to leave the park because it was not for “children with special needs” – the child had cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects muscle coordination.

Park authorities later told a news outlet that they had not obstructed the family from spending time at the park, and that, in fact, staff had stopped the child from getting on a risky ride.

This was not the first such instance in recent times, in which a child with an intellectual disability, or who is perceived to have one, encountered an obstruction when it came to accessing a public space.

In 2022, staff of an airline reportedly prevented a child with special needs from boarding a flight from the airport in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The airline claimed that the staff had done so because the child was in a “state of panic”. The airport issued an apology soon after and offered the child an electric wheelchair as compensation.

The next year, a 15-year-old autistic child was prevented from boarding a flight at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru by staff of a Sri Lankan airline, who allegedly claimed that the child “would be a threat” to the flight staff.

The Court of Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities took suo motu cognisance of the matter, and found that the airline had acted in violation of “global civil aviation requirements”. In 2024, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the airline responsible for the 2022 incident in Ranchi.

Since then, some airports have taken some measures to create more welcoming environments for neurodivergent individuals. Most significantly, in 2025, the Bengaluru’s airport opened India’s first sensory room for neurodivergent passengers. These spaces are designed keeping in mind that these individuals often get overwhelmed when a space is too noisy or busy. They typically need spaces that offer soundproof rooms, dim or warm lighting, appropriate temperature and ventilation.

In the Mumbai and Delhi airports, meanwhile, the airport administrations have introduced therapy dogs that passengers can spend time with to help themselves stay calm.

In other cities, such as Kolkata and Bengaluru, parents said local authorities had set up parks that were designed to be inclusive of children with special needs. These parks have features such as ramps, wheelchair-accessible swings, tactile flooring, pale paints on the walls and quiet zones to help ensure children do not feel overwhelmed.

But, they noted, such measures were few and far between. For the vast majority of families with children who have special needs, public spaces, as well as public transport, remain difficult to access.

According to the 2011 census, India has around 2.68 crore people with disabilities, which include both physical and intellectual disabilities. Of them, around 78 lakh are children. Though the government has not published any data specific to intellectual disabilities, activists said that such individuals are likely to be significantly undercounted because many families lack access to proper medical care and diagnosis.

Broadly, obstructing disabled people from public spaces is violative of Indian law. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 states that people with disabilities have the right to public facilities and services. The statute covers a wide range of such facilities and services including those pertaining to “housing, educational and vocational trainings”, as well as “shopping or marketing”, “religious, cultural, leisure or recreational”, and “medical, health and rehabilitation”.

The act also states that those who contravene the law can be punished with a fine. This also includes anyone who “intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a person with disability in any place within public view”.

But Dr Shakeeb Ahmed Khan, who works with children with special needs, and also has a son with an intellectual disability, explained that while he sympathised deeply with parents in such situations, to tackle the problem, it would be of limited efficacy to assign all blame to staffers on the ground, such as the guard in the Sunder Nursery video. “We don’t know what he has been told by the higher ups,” he said. “Sometimes people just don’t know how to handle such situations and don’t know the appropriate vocabulary to use. We have to take a top down approach and hold the people on top accountable.”

Scroll spoke to 11 parents of children with intellectual disabilities in cities like Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru to understand their experience of the problem, and how they attempted to navigate it.

“A child needs to be a part of mainstream society,” said Shilpi Sharma, a psychologist and a special needs educator based in Hyderabad. “But people are uncomfortable with seeing children with special needs in parks and buses.”

Among the biggest challenges families with children with intellectual disabilities face in navigating public spaces and facilities is the hostile attitudes of those they encounter. Many said that they avoided public transport and only used private vehicles to travel in their cities.

Chitra took on the responsibility of caring for the child after the child’s mother died of cancer around seven years ago. In the days that followed, Chitra and her family noticed that the child was not speaking – at first, they assumed that she was still in shock from her mother’s death, but doctors they consulted later informed them that that the child was neurodivergent.

Today, the time that Chitra spends dropping her niece to school and bringing her back home in a bus is usually racked with tension.

Ambulance noises, traffic stops and snarls and noisy passengers often upset the child, causing her to panic and hyperventilate. But it was not these that caused Chitra the most anxiety, but the reactions of the fellow passengers, who often stared, made comments and frowned at them. “What really hurts me is the way people scowl when she makes some noise or feels disturbed,” Chitra said.

She added, “She is a wonderful child, very attached to me. I make sure to carry homemade murukku, so she can eat on the bus on the way back home. That helps keep her calm.”

As a result of the negative experiences they have had, Chitra sometimes chooses to drop the child to school in an auto, though the fare of Rs 250 is a considerable financial burden. “It depends on whether I have that amount of money in my hands,” she said.

Chitra explained that she faces similar problems in other spaces too, such as a temple that she regularly visits with the child.

The temple complex is a somewhat chaotic place, she noted, with many dogs, filled with loud sounds, such as of temple bells. These stimuli sometimes alarm her niece, in response to which she instinctively reaches out to hold on to someone near her, even if they are a stranger. Apart from being surprised, Chitra has noticed that people tend to overreact when they see that the child is autistic. “The person will react as if they have been attacked and pull away from her,” she said.

In one instance, in response to the temple bell, the child “held the hand of someone when we were standing near the altar, and that person shouted and pushed her”, she said. “She said that she got scared that the child might do something to her.”

Such incidents left Chitra deeply saddened. “How can full grown adults be scared of a little child? What harm can she possibly cause them?” she said. “She’s reaching out for help, and these people make faces at us. I wish people were not so insensitive.”

Other parents, too, spoke of similar experiences.

G Soujanya, a resident of the neighbouring state of Telangana, and the mother of a neurodivergent boy, said she encountered such discrimination in some supermarkets, and that staff would sometimes instruct her to avoid visiting during their busy hours. “Other customers stare at him and pass comments, and the staff will tell us to come when the shop is free,” she said.

Amrita M, a resident of Bengaluru, who has a 15-year-old autistic son, recounted that in some instances, adults would take for granted that they were allowed to scold her son. “People have just started to yell at him without first speaking to me,” she said. “This once happened at an event to launch a play area for children. When I complained to the organiser, they did not know how to respond to me.”

In response to these challenges, some parents rule out taking their children to certain spaces, or spending any significant length of time in them.

“I don’t think my aunt and uncle even thought that they could take her to the park,” said Yogita Dakshina, who grew up in a joint family in Chennai with a cousin who has autism, developmental delay and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Vidya CA, a parent in Bengaluru, who has a child with a rare disease who also has an intellectual disability, said she has never stayed long in a park with her child for fear of being asked to leave. “I don’t want to have any awkwardness with anyone,” she said. “Even malls are not for us.”

Amrita noted that in parks, “the equipment is sometimes unsafe for our children”.

Dakshina explained that her family encountered hurdles even when the family visited her mother’s hometown, Kolkata, and tried to use public transport. “People will complain to the TTE” – the travelling ticket examiner – “about her and we would not know what to do,” she recounted.

On one occasion, the problem took on an even more sinister dimension – after they had completed a trip, she said, her family concluded that her cousin may have been “touched inappropriately”.

She said that the child struggled to communicate what had happened. “The vocabulary and ability to regulate through this was not something she had,” she explained. She recounted that “Initially, it was a lot of her lashing out and telling us a man pinched her on her arms and may have touched her near her chest.”

The family realised that she had indeed been pinched “because we saw the mark, but she could not tell us exactly what happened”, Dakshina said. She added, “We assumed that could have happened from putting together whatever she was able to say.”

Denying children with special needs access to certain spaces has the egregious effect of limiting their growth and learning, and also has adverse implications for their healthcare, parents explained.

Soujanya was dismayed when her son was denied the opportunity to take classes at a swimming pool close to their house. “My husband took my son there to get him admitted to the swimming classes,” she said. “But they took one look at my son and said that they won’t be able to teach him.”

Her husband tried to convince the swimming coach that his son was capable of understanding directions, and that he himself would be present throughout the classes to help tackle any problems. But the trainer did not budge.

In another part of the city, another parent, Sreepooja B, who said her son has “mild to moderate autism”, recounted a similar experience with a swimming centre, as well as a skating facility. “I found a skating class near my house and took my son to get him admitted there,” she said. “But the trainer said he would need special training and refused.”

She added that her son understands directions. “He is verbal, but most people don’t even want to give him a chance, they just decide that they cannot train him,” she said.

In this instance, cost also proved to be a hurdle for the parents. “They said he needed one-on-one training. But that would cost us Rs 8,000-10,000, when the regular classes only cost Rs 1,500,” Sreepooja said. “That is obviously not something we can afford.”

Other parents echoed this concern. Amrita noted that parents of children with special needs faced considerable pressure to enroll their wards in “private gyms, private art classes, private pools”. But, she added, “It depends on how much the parent can afford. I can only send him to as many as I can afford.”

It was not merely a problem of cost, Sreepooja explained, but also the denial of opportunities for her son to socialise. “Just getting him a personal trainer defeats the purpose of a class,” she said.

Some parents face obstacles in accessing therapeutic treatments also. “When I took him for hydrotherapy too, they said they cannot accommodate him with the other kids and gave us slots that were not feasible for us,” said Vidya CA, the parent from Bengaluru.

Sharma, the psychologist, who is also a parent to a neurodivergent child, explained that children with intellectual disabilities were also denied access to schools, though they are mandated by the Right to Education Act, 2009, to admit students with special needs as well. “Schools are also public spaces, and students with special needs are consistently denied admission,” she said. She added that parents are often told “that they have filled their quota, or that they don’t have the facilities to cater to their needs”.

Khan recounted a hurtful experience at his son’s school. “They told me to drop my son a little later and pick him up later, after the other children have left,” he said.

Parents said that even hospitals are often hostile spaces to children with disabilities. This is particularly distressing to families since the children frequently have to visit medical facilities for tests and check-ups. Most hospitals do not have any accommodations for children with special needs, parents explained, forcing them to often wait hours to meet consultants, or do tests. “I wish they would have a separate setup for our children,” Vidya said.

She added, “Waiting time is one of our biggest struggles as parents. I don’t know why hospitals cannot have a separate queue or a space for children with special needs.”

Khan observed that doctors often had an unsympathetic attitude towards the families, and “will just say make the child cooperate, without understanding what the child is going through”.

Rajani Reddy, a parent based in Hyderabad, recounted once visiting a hospital along with her son to get a brain scan and a CT scan. “He had been a bit irritable, so we wanted to check if he had any health issues and decided to do the tests,” she said. “After the scans were completed, we were waiting for the reports. During that time, the security and the supervisor staff came and told me to keep my son quiet.”

Reddy tried to calm her son down, but was not entirely successful. “After some time, they came again and asked us to wait somewhere else, and said there were seats outside,” she said. “It was such a bitter experience, but it wasn’t our first.”

Khan noted that children and families from marginalised communities were particularly vulnerable. “Intersectionality in this issue is a very crucial aspect,” he said. “When parents of children with developmental difficulties are worried about access to education and health in India, we have additional worries if they will be safe considering their identity too.”

A 2023 working paper by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy focused on how to secure “inclusive urban spaces for persons with autism spectrum disorder”.

The paper stressed the importance of inclusive design policies. For instance, it highlighted the need for providing “more ‘sensory sensitive’ urban spaces as well as calm spaces or quiet rooms in areas that have high sensorial load”.

Some parents who have had the opportunity to travel abroad have observed the implementation of such efforts in public spaces in other countries.

Sreepooja, whose family lived briefly in the United States, said that she came across several instances of such measures. “There would be discounts on therapies, and for certain activities, they would have a separate slot for kids with special needs,” she said. “They would also have sensory spaces, cinema theatres would have special shows.”

When Amrita visited Singapore to see her sister, she took her son to parks there.

She added, “He was able to play alongside other children too. That made us so happy.”

She noted that she felt sure of the child’s safety in the park. “The stark difference was there were no broken rods, adequate space, sandpits, swings, I didn’t have to worry about him getting hurt,” she said. “The other thing was sensory play. Some parks had installations that produced sounds. The main thing was that the parks were spacious and not overcrowded, which is what overwhelms a neurodiverse child.”

Some parents try to educate others about the measures that would be needed to make public spaces safer for their children, but say that few are interested in the problem. “I have written to my residential community asking them for the opportunity to hold a session, to explain to them what autism is and what children need, and why it is important for spaces to be inclusive,” Sreepooja said. “But nobody was interested in my proposal.”x`

But parents also noted that a few promising efforts in India towards addressing the problem.

In one prominent initiative, in 2019, the retail chain Big Bazaar designated the opening hour of every Tuesday as “autism quiet hour” across certain stores. During this hour, the store dimmed its lights, avoided making any announcements and reduced trolley movement. It also assigned sensitised staff to work during these hours, and set up play areas, as well as suitable seating arrangements.

Authorities in Kolkata, meanwhile, had “taken efforts to establish an inclusive park”, Khan said. The park, named Ananda Mela, is described as an “inclusive sensory park”, with accessible play equipment, including some that encourage sensory play, and safety features such as seatbelts.

Amrita said she was particularly glad to hear of the sensory room in the Bengaluru airport and was eager to try it out with her son. “It would help our children if more such spaces opened up,” she said.

Vidya noted that Cubbon Park in Bengaluru “also has a space devoted to cater to the needs of children with special needs”. She added, “There are some efforts taken here and there that we must appreciate.”

But, she added, significant progress on this front “seems a very long way off”.

Source: Scroll
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