Inclusion Matters: Access and Empowerment for People of All Abilities (Commentary)

By Deepraj Sanyal / Kathmandu: As every year, this year also Nepal joins the whole world in commemorating the 24th International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) on December 3, and as usual, various programmes focusing on different aspects related to people with disabilities would be held to mark the occasion.

Commemorations apart, the Day also comes as a solemn occasion to honour an estimated one billion differently-able people across the globe who are keeping on life’s stride, despite many odds stacked against them. It is also an occasion to assess what has been achieved and what remains to be done towards realizing its goal.

The observance of the IDPD aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social economic and cultural life.

Inclusion Matters: Access and Empowerment for People of All Abilities, the theme for this year’s IDPD, rightly focuses on the access of the disabled persons to all the services and facilities, and their empowerment. According to the United Nations, the people living with disabilities worldwide face multiple barriers to inclusion in many key aspects of society and as a result, people with disability do not enjoy access to society on an equal basis with others, which include areas of transportation, employment and education as well as social and political participation.

“Talking about the access and inclusion aspects for the disabled persons in Nepal, the scenario is not very rosy. Although it is mentioned in the constitution and the State policies to provide equal access to and ensure the inclusive participation of people with disabilities in all the state organs and services, it is only limited to paper,” shared Tika Dahal, the General Secretary of the National Disabled Federation-Nepal (NFD-N).

She pointed out the need of putting what has been mentioned in the papers into practice for achieving a meaningful inclusion and participation of the people with disabilities. Dahal enumerated the main issues of the people with disabilities in the country as bringing a change in the society’s outlook towards the disabled, ensuring their total access to education and effective implementation of policies and programmes and respect for the rights of the disabled.

As in many countries, there is still a considerable amount of social stigma for disabled people and their families.

In the words of Jane Schofield Gurung, a research scholar, Nepal has many problems relating to provision of health care, education and training or work opportunities. These factors affect not only the normal population, but also disabled people and their families.

About 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, many of which are still relatively inaccessible. This presents a challenge for the provision of services, access by disabled people, and in some cases may increase the handicap. The situation for the disabled people and their families is therefore doubly difficult due to the general problems affecting everyone, and due to the specific aspects of disability and social stigma.

In Nepal the situation regarding legislation is similar to that of many countries where there is legislation about the rights of the differently-able, but the implementation is difficult and almost non-existent in practice. The government provides some allowances for the disabled persons. There are some financial allocations for disability work. However, this is hardly ever used. The approach is very ‘welfare-oriented’ rather than a ‘training and enabling’ approach.

“There has been some change in the status of the disabled persons in Nepal and social outlook towards them in the past some years, thanks to the many public awareness-raising campaigns, advocacy programmes and lobbying by the NFD-N, associated organizations and the civic society. Some achievements have been made, but still there remains a lot to be done as regards securing the rights of the disabled people,” said Deepak Koirala, Chairman of Nepal Para-Olympic Committee and founder member of NFD-N. Koirala is visually impaired.

According to him, the State should pay attention to enhancing the capabilities of people with disabilities, providing them with employment opportunities where possible and their rehabilitation. He strongly demands that the government should set up at least one well-equipped rehabilitation centre for the disabled people in each development region of the country.

Goma Devi Poudel, Executive Member of NFD-N, says most of the people with disabilities in the country do not have access to education.

A study carried out under the aegis of the National Planning Commission Secretariat and the Social Welfare Council in 2001 shows that most of the disabled (68.2 per cent) had no education as compared to the general population. The literacy rate is also considerably lower for females than males. Though nearly 95 per cent of the household heads wanted their disabled children to go to school, only 56.3 per cent of the age group 6-20 years was enrolled in school, indicating that there were different physical and social barriers for schooling. Disability was a powerful reason for not attending school for all, but it figured more for girls than for boys. Similarly, not all those who have enrolled were currently attending school. For most of the dropouts (36.5 per cent), the reason was their not being able to perform like others in the class, indicating a lack of support in school.

The study was conducted in 30 districts spread over the 15 eco-development regions of the country. A sample of 13,005 households covering a population of 75,944 was considered for the study. These households were drawn from a total of 217 clusters and among the sample clusters, 89.4 per cent were from rural areas and 10.6 per cent from urban areas. The study showed that the prevalence of disability was estimated to be 1.63 per cent in the total population, with estimates of 1.65 per cent in the rural areas and 1.43 per cent in urban areas.

There is great uncertainty and debate about the prevalence rate of disability in Nepal. The national statistics shows the disabled population to be 513,000 (1.94 per cent of total population of the country), as per the national census held in 2011. Out of this population of disabled, 44 per cent are female. But organisations like NFD-N and some independent statisticians contest this and say the total number of people with disabilities in Nepal is over 20 per cent of the population.

The IDPD will hold significance for the 500,000 plus Nepali citizens with disabilities only if their access to health, education, employment, rehabilitation and sports and entertainment is ensured and realized. RSS