The disabled want 'rights', not 'welfare' From: The Kathmandu Post - 12/02/2002 By: Bikash Sangraula After two decades since the United Nations celebrated International Disabled Year in 1981, and declared December 3rd as International Disabled Day, Nepal hasn't come far in terms of guaranteeing or even assuring discrimination-free life for the disabled. Munishwor Pandey, president, National Federation of the Disabled (NFD) - Nepal, told The Kathmandu Post, "The UN disabled decade of 1983-93 is over, Asia Pacific disabled decade of 1992-2002 has also concluded. However, we haven`t made any headway progress." Realising that some regions of the Asia Pacific had lagged behind, the Japan summit on the disabled convened on October 2002 declared the period 2003 - 2012 as the Post Decade. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the disabled in Nepal constitute about 10 per cent of the total population. That is around 2.4 million. In response to the call of the UN, Nepal passed the 'Disabled Protection and Welfare Act' in 1983 that defines disability and lists provisions for ensuring equality, education, health, training, employment, and other support to the disabled in Nepal "Surprisingly, nothing except the passing of the Act happened during the 1983-93 period," added Pandey. Experts opine that in spite of visible efforts in Nepal to ensure disabled welfare, the disabled have continued to suffer, as able people cannot empathise on their everyday hardships. "And there is no representation from the disabled at the policy level," said Minraj Panthi, ex-general secretary of the NFD, and added, "Frequent changes of government is also posing serious problems to our cause." In 1994, a law was passed in Nepal to enforce the Act. The law suffers from ambiguity as it lists down everything that should he done to protect a disabled person's rights but fails to mention who is responsible in ensuring this. "In order to rectify the ambiguity of the Act, we formed an advisory committee in 1999. The rectified draft was submitted to the govern nient in 2000. The draft is still pending," said Pandey. Discrimination of the disabled begins right from the family in Nepal. Disabled children are often regarded as a family 'disgrace'. They are discouraged from participating in social activities, says Kiran Shilpakar of NFD. Development activities in Nepal overlook the needs of the disabled. Public libraries have shelves and chairs that are not compatible to the needs of the disabled. Similarly, the overhead bridges are far from benefiting the disabled. "The needs of disabled have not been sufficiently incorporated in our development efforts. The present infrastructure excludes the disabled. How can a vertically challenged or a mobility challenged reach a water tap or the light switches that are at around 5 odd feet on the wall," said Pandey, citing examples of infrastructure based discrimination. The UN Standard Rule of 1994 makes equal opportunity and participation of the disabled mandatory. Similarly the Economic and Social Commission of Asia Pacific and the Constitution of the country have provisions to secure employment opportunities for the disabled. However, the qualifications to be met for joining civil service in Nepal are prohibitive for the disabled. According to Kamal Lamichhane, president, National Society of the Disabled, social discrimination against the disabled is a far greater problem than the disability itself. "Disability and inability are two different things. We might be disabled but we can make fine civil servants. People need to be sufficiently educated on this." Experts say that unless there is a shift from 'welfare concept' to 'rights concept' on disabled related legislation, the efforts to ensure rights for the disabled are not going to be fruitful. Also, the lack of public awareness of politically correct terms has been seen as a major impediment in educating people toward respecting disabled rights. "There are no blind people anymore. Yes, there are visually challenged people. It is unfair to nickname anyone on the basis of a disability," said Lamichhane.