Bureaucrats, lawyers, academicians, NGOs working for people with disabilities on Sunday urged political parties to choose people with disabilities as candidates to ensure their representation in parliament.
At a roundtable discussion, they urged the government to develop a guideline for accessible voting system to ensure the rights of around 1.6 crore people with disabilities.ADD International Bangladesh and The Daily Star organised the roundtable discussion ‘Civil and political rights of persons with disabilities’ at the Daily Star office.
ADD International Bangladesh country director Mosharraf Hossain said without these 1.6 crore people, the country would not be able to reach their goal so the government should ensure their participation in local and national election.
Addressing the discussion, chief guest social welfare minister Enamul Haque Mostafa Shahid said the draft of the ‘Disabled Persons Protection and Rights Act 2013’ was going to be passed very soon.
He criticised the programme organisers for not inviting any official from government who deal with disability issue and asked what change they wanted to bring about in society only by organising seminar and discussion.
-With New Age input
