Source: www.ndtv.com
BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, September 13, 2009: Human rights activists have appealed to the priests in Puri and the Orissa government to allow physically challenged devotees to enter the Jagannath temple on wheelchairs. The priests do not currently allow wheel chairs to enter the temple, possibly because of concerns about cleanliness: while ordinary devotees remove their shoes before entering the temple, someone in a wheelchair cannot leave his wheels outside.
Dr. Sruti Mohapatra, a human rights activist who uses a wheelchair, wants those like her to be allowed into the temple. “Lord Jagannath symbolizes disability, so why bar persons with disability on wheelchairs to enter the temple?” Mrinalini Padhi, a lawyer in Orissa High Court, suggests a solution to the cleanliness issue: “let [the temple] have their own set of wheelchairs and volunteers who will come and help the wheelchair-bound persons access into the temple.” Other prominent temples, such as the Siddhivinayak temple and Guruvayur temple, do allow people with wheelchairs.