Mentally ill, diseased not allowed on train, reads Delhi Metro advisory

New Delhi: In an astonishing development, Delhi Metro Corporation (DMC) has pasted health advisory at stations, which advises mentally disturbed and diseased not to board the train. The corporation which is otherwise considered to be holistic in nature has been chastised for endorsing such a retrograde idea. NGOs have come out in defense of people with psychological disorder and filed a complaint against DMC.

According to the notice, leprosy patients will be allowed to board trains only if they produce a certificate certified by a medical practitioner, saying that the disease is non-communicable.

“The notice is not only discriminatory but at the same time testifies DMC’s ignorance. The development comes in the wake of a Supreme Court judgement in favour of an activist with cerebral palsy after he was not allowed to board a plane because of his health condition four years ago,” said a psychologist, as quoted in a news report.

The diseases mentioned in the notice include chicken pox, mumps, typhus, whooping cough, cholera, measles, scarlet fever, typhoid and tuberculosis.

However, when DMC officials were enquired about the notice, they said, “These are old regulations followed by Delhi Metro and there is nothing new in the notified rules.”

The notice was first cited by a social worker who runs an NGO in Delhi. He came across the issuance at Hauz Khas metro station. Lampooning DMC for professing a regressive idea, he said, “It is mostly normal people who take to violence. I have never seen a mentally disturbed person creating ruckus in the train.”