Daily Times

“My mother made me leave school after grade five to look after my disabled sister at home but my two elder brothers continued going to school,” shared Jamna, a 15-year-old female resident of Chunia Patoki. Like Jamna, many women have devoted their lives, either by choice or circumstance, to looking after the disabled members of their families. Our society views disability as a sin or punishment from God, which deserves charity and pity, perceiving and identifying persons with disabilities as helpless victims. Dr Simone Aftab, the administrator and medical consultant at the Haroon Rashid Vocational Rehabilitation Centre, Fountain House Lahore, shared that disability is strongly viewed as a stigma, shame and curse, and that the majority of families conceal disability, especially of their female family members. This results in less integration and increased discrimination.

The National Population Consensus of Pakistan 1998 put the prevalence of disability at 2.49 percent of the total population, which amounted to approximately 3.2 million persons with disabilities, 1.37 million of whom are female. In 2012, the projected data and analysis carried out by Helping Hand for Relief and Development, Islamabad, 2012, based on the 1998 census, placed the total population of persons with disabilities (PWD) at 5.035 million of the estimated population of 180.7 million, emphasising that there was an increase of the disability rate by up to 2.65 percent as compared to 2.54 percent in 1998. These data projections by gender explain that the male population of PWDs, at 58.4 percent, is higher than the female population at 41.6 percent. Since these projections are based on the 1998 census, it has to be kept in mind that under-reporting of the female population can be attributed to the patriarchal cultural norms that conceal females from being reported.

Shafiq-ur-Rehman, President of Milestone, Lahore, an organisation working for the social welfare of PWDs shared that women with disabilities are really missed in terms of their registered population due to discriminatory practices and andocentric norms. In the journal, Women and Disabilities: Exploring Interface of Multiple Disadvantages, Tony Emmett and Erna Alant argued that national surveys in developing countries like India and Pakistan, which show low disability prevalence rates of women may be due to various reasons such as gender division of labour, where the males’ visibility is greater. Due to less access to healthcare, education and rehabilitation facilities, and a high mortality rate, females with disabilities are under-reported and receive less support and care, causing them to die early.

Mrs Mahruk, principal of the Hamza Foundation Academy for the deaf, Lahore, informed me that the dropout rate for girls is higher than that of boys in the age bracket from 13 to 17 years. Girls with disabilities suffer more from depression and anxiety because, when they reach puberty, parents prefer to make their daughters stay at home and they have fewer opportunities for social inclusion.

Miseries for PWDs are further compounded as there are difficulties accessing and receiving government support. Despite the legal framework, several procedural limitations make the system difficult to access. According to Article 3 (paragraph 2) of the Disability Concession Card Act 2009 (DCCA 2009), persons with disabilities have to obtain a disability registration certificate from the social welfare department, which will validate the disability and is a basis to receive their special disability concession card. Once a person has received a disability concession card (computerised national identity card with a disability logo), then she or he will be entitled to free medical treatment in government hospitals, free supporting aids, free education (except professional education) and allocation of two percent seats in all professional and technical institutions except engineering and medicine, and avail travel concessions. Practically, this means that PWDs have to obtain the disability card to claim social welfare benefits such as concession in transportation and employment on reserved quota. It has been a strong concern of organisations working for PWDs that a person has to visit three offices to complete the process of getting registered, which is found to be cumbersome and lengthy. Moreover, the concerned departments are not accordingly equipped and accessible to deal with persons with disabilities. There is no requirement to ensure access for people with a disability such as in access to government offices, bus stands and railway stations.

Shazia George, coordinator Awam Pakistan, brought attention to another concern that discouraged females from appearing for a medical checkup to obtain the disability card. She shared that females hesitate to allow their disabled body parts to be examined by the medical officer. This could be resolved by appointing a female officer and having female staff examine the disability at the district hospitals.

Safeguarding the rights of the disabled population, Pakistan has international obligations as it is a signatory to international conventions. Pakistan’s government has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2011, which recognises issues, problems and rights of women and children with disabilities in Articles 6 and 7 respectively. In 1994, Pakistan ratified the International Labour Organisation Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention 1983 (No 159) to enable a disabled person to secure, retain and advance in suitable employment and thereby to further such persons’ integration or reintegration into society. Claiming the rightful place for disabled persons in society, Pakistan does provide law and policies. However, a question arises: does the prevalence of national legislation and policies benefit disabled persons and enable them to access their rights and be part of society?

The approach, based on the human rights model, believes that all human beings, irrespective of their disabilities, have unchallengeable rights. This approach is incorporated into Pakistani laws and policies dealing with PWDs. Ensuring these laws have the systems and assistance to enable people with a disability, particularly women, to obtain their rights is still a challenge Much is still to be done to translate laws into concrete realities and sensitise the mass-scale prevalence of cultural and customary attitudes that define disability in models other than the human rights framework.

The author is a freelance columnist