“Disability need not be an obstacle to success.” – Stephen Hawking.
Like many several years, this year too, on the eve of International Day of Disability human rights defenders and civil society leaders urged the government of Pakistan to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and implement its own policy of 2002 to improve the physical well-being and lot of ‘differently-abled’ persons.
Human Rights NGOs and civil society forums working on these issues of disable people have urged the Government of Pakistan to move forward toward ad call upon political parties, parliamentarians, judiciary and media to join together in this process so that persons with disabilities can take their place as full and equal members of society.
For the last many years, this day is observed annually to mobilise public support for the dignity, rights and well-being of the physically challenged persons. This year, the theme of the day is to ensure full and equal rights and participation in society by the special persons.
Over one billion people, or approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population, live with some form of disability. More than 10 per cent of the population of Pakistan have some sort of disability and are deprived of facilities for easy movement and mainstreaming. Main challenges for differently abled people in Pakistan are access to basic right of education, health and transportation services, mainstreaming, jobs and family orientation.
The United Nations General Assembly in 1982 established the World Programme of Action concerning physically challenged persons and decided to observe the day as an annual feature.
According to the WHO estimates 10 per cent people of the total population are physically challenged in Pakistan. As per a UN report, globally, one in every 10 persons is physically challenged.
Eighty per cent of all the physically challenged people are from rural areas of developing countries and have limited or no access to services they need. Ninety per cent of physically challenged school-age children in developing countries do not attend school.
Last year schoolchildren in Karachi decided to join together to fight for the rights of people with disabilities, they campaigned, raised awareness and got over 75,000 signatures on a petition to the Prime Minister to ask him to sign the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. On September the 25, 2008, the efforts of these children were realised as Pakistan finally signed the UN Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities.
This year, UN has also resolved its commitment to provide all people with the equality of access they need and deserve. Ultimately, this will create a better world for all. As negotiators at this year’s “Rio+20” United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development agreed, accessibility is critical to achieve the future we want.
If Pakistan ratifies the UN convention, then we will become part of global community to strive together to achieve the goals of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: to eliminate discrimination and exclusion, and to create societies that value diversity and inclusion.
There is a need to give priority to these issues in Pakistan in order to spur action to bridge the gap between well-meaning commitments and long-overdue actions on disability and development.
Pakistan should do serious home work to participate in next year’s post-2015 development agenda, which will provide Pakistan an opportunity to ensure that the rights, concerns and contributions of persons with disabilities are fully taken into account.
Pakistan needs to provide following basic opportunities and space to differently abled people:-
Special quota of admissions in schools, jobs and other human security and access to livelihood related facilities
There should be proper access of disabled people to use a wheel-chair to get around school, hospital, local supermarket, work places and parks, especially quota for girls and women. There should proper standing points at bus stops, taxi stands and other transportation means. Buildings should have lifts or ramps provided for people in wheelchairs. The term ‘differently-abled’ should be used, instead, of disable so that people shall share empathy instead of charity or sympathy and that they feel respected.
Society should develop social security and other state structures in a way that needs of all its citizens and especially differently-abled people shall be meet accordingly. Every year commemoration of this day reflects on the problems of special people and set the goals to achieve the same standards as existed in civilized nations. No disability is too great to conquer human will. Examples abound to demonstrate that disabilities have not stood in the way of men and women possessing will and determination. Will can and has conquered all disabilities.
Differently-abled people have a significant positive impact on society, and their contributions can be even greater if we remove barriers to their participation. With more than one billion persons with disabilities in our world today, this is more important than ever.
Pakistan must resolve:-
Good practices in service delivery to persons with disabilities, effective community based outreach programs, success stories in rehabilitation are needed to speared-out through the country to mobilize people to get sensitized on these issues.
Rights based approach to dealing with disability issues.
Government must observe UN declared days with full publicity and engagement of all stakeholders as per the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and inclusive education.
A better co-ordination among government departments dealing with education , social welfare and poverty alleviation is required.
Proper utilization of resources and implementation of government policies for persons with disabilities, supporting and facilitating the work of organizations working for such persons shall be prioritized.
A good networking must be generated among NGO’s, awareness raising and laying the groundwork for ratification and implementation of the Convention.
The priority should be an enabling environment in which persons with disabilities can have access to affordable healthcare, education, transport, information and other services so that they can become part of a truly inclusive society.
People with disabilities have the same rights as everybody else. Their differing abilities become disabilities when they come across economic, social and physical barriers in society. Lack of transport facilities for persons with disabilities, non-observance and non-enforcement of employment quota, lack of educational facilities and discrimination etc. are some of the barriers being faced by persons with disabilities.
The commemoration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2013 provides an opportunity to address this exclusion by focusing on promoting accessibility and removing all types of barriers in our respective societies.
Differently-abled excluded people net to be included and main-streamed in Pakistani society.
The writer is human rights activist and presently engaged with AHRC. He can be reached at zulfiqar.halepoto@ahrc.asia
