Daily Times

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises four disabilities namely hearing, vision, physical and intellectually challenged. As per UN estimates nearly 80percent of persons with disabilities (PWDs)live in developing countries, and girls with disabilities are especially vulnerable as not only does it take them longer to acquire adequate employment it is mostly not meaningful, and the remuneration is lower than male employees performing the same task. In Pakistan females with any disability continue to face a cycle of exclusion for gainful employment, and prior to that face discrimination at the stage of enrolling for school because of a dire shortage of inclusive and accessible schools. In Pakistan, women with disabilities are less likely to get married than non-disabled women.

The global estimate for disability is on the rise due to population ageing, rapid spread of chronic diseases, as well as improvements in the methodologies used to measure disability and exceeds 10 percent of the world’s population. The Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)the right to inclusive education is recognised and Article 24 of the CRPD stresses the need for governments to ensure equal access to an “inclusive education system at all levels” and ensure equitable accommodation and individual support services to PWD’s. Article 3 underscores for equality between men and women.

Individuals with disability have been practically excluded from the National Census carried out in 2017 apparently due to inadvertence, as the enumerators were not trained to make accurate enquiries and data collection on individuals with recognised disabilities. Policymakers in Pakistan procrastinate spreading inclusive education, presenting low budgetary allocations as a constraint.

Women with disabilities around the world, and in Pakistan, encounter a myriad of challenges; their plight is exacerbated if they are unfortunate enough to be refugees, in a conflict zone, from a developing country or an underdeveloped region. It is imperative to promote inclusive, full and productive employment through creating a conducive environment for PWD’s to access the job market. The UN highlighted the invisible and visible barriers confronting women at work on International Women’s Day 2017 to bridge the gender pay gap and to breakdown traditional and conventional fallacies and myths. A generalised form of discrimination highlighted by the UN is the 24 percent gender pay gap which is a substantial margin. In Pakistan not only are roles for women predefined, factors such as poverty, poor health and inequality place an additional burden on working women. The situation isn’t too different in the west, where a study carried out in the EU in 2013 highlighted that less than half of PWDs got employment and women with disabilities faced an even bleaker picture.

The detractors to the concept of inclusive education have no cogent response to the abundance of research available indicating that women at the workplace are inherently averse to indulging in corrupt practices

By a tradition of exclusion of girls from the educational stream, Pakistani society is the real loser. Not only is human resource and human capital in the country compromised, but the average household income also suffers.

The detractors to the concept of inclusive education have no cogent response to the abundance of research available indicating that women at the workplace are inherently averse to indulging in corrupt practice and value their repute more as compared to their male counterparts.

Inclusive Education is distinct from the concept of integration and mainstreaming which deals with disability and special educational needs and is primarily concerned about accommodation. Inclusion education is about a child’s right to share the same classroom and it is incumbent upon the school to accept the child with disability. Inclusion discards the notion of special schools and classrooms and is all encompassing to enable a student with disability to acquire age appropriate skills to utilise outside the classroom. The concept of inclusive education finds mention in Chapter Fifteen of Pakistan’s National Education Policy 2017 – 2025 wherein policy provisions emphasise creation of an inclusive learning environment in 50 percent existing formal education institutions at all levels. Estimates of the total value of GDP lost due to disability establishes that around 35 percent of the GDP of the world is lost on account of disability and females account for around 50 percent of such loss. The United Nations appointed a Special Rapporteur on the Rights of PWDs in 2014 following Human Rights Council resolution 35/6 including integrating a gender perspective throughout the work of the mandate.

In Pakistan, the facilitation for PWDs is symbolic and portrayed as constructing wheelchair ramps. No facilitation at the national level exists for invisible disabilities such as hearing impairment. The Government of Sindh has enacted a Neonatal Hearing Screening Program for early intervention and rehabilitation. The Government of Punjab has issued directions to admit persons with minor disabilities in regular schools to promote inclusive education. Special schools are more expensive to construct and maintain then inclusive schools. According to a report of UNESCO the expenditure incurred on educating a child in a special education school in Pakistan averages at USD 300 compared to USD 20 for a child enrolled in a mainstream school which is all the more reason for initiating an inclusive schooling system where girls with disabilities can compete with their peers.

The UN by the year 2030 hopes to achieve gender equality at the ratio of 50:50, euphemistically termed Planet 50:50.It is incumbent upon women at the helm of affairs and as opinion leaders to share in the campaign and assume responsibility to transform the policy, mindset and attitudes prevailing in Pakistan.

The writer is PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences, also Fellowship in Clinical & Research Neuro Rehabilitation, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine from Seoul National University Hospital, South Korea with publications in academic journals

Published in Daily Times, August 14^th 2018.