Sixteen lakh disabled children deprived of education

Cooperation of ministries sought to ensure dev of the disabled
Development activists on Thursday demanded amendments to the rules of business to ensure the involvement of other related ministries alongside the social welfare ministry in the development of the people with disabilities.
They made their demand at a views-exchange meeting on ‘Implementation of United Nations Rights of the People with Disabilities: Role of the Mass Media’, organised by Access Bangladesh Foundation and held at the Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management Foundation’s auditorium.
Speakers said that the ministries of education, health, labour and employment and women and children affairs should work together for ensuring the rights of the people with disabilities.
Hasbullah, advocacy officer of Access Bangladesh Foundation, said in his keynote paper that around 16,00,000 disabled children are deprived of education in the country, though education is their fundamental right.
He said that though the government has allocated money in the national budget for ensuring health services to the disabled people, the diagnosis of disabilities and the system to deliver the necessary services are yet to be included in the primary health-care services.
The speakers also demanded proper implementation of the quota system for the people with disabilities in the service sector.
They urged the government to make all the government hospitals disability-friendly.
CM Shafi Sami, former adviser to the caretaker government and former foreign secretary, stressed the role of the mass media in making the people aware of the rights of the disabled people.
Golam Sarwar, editor of Shamakal, said that many less important issues are being published in the newspapers, but the issues like rights of the disabled people and their development are not given due coverage.
He said that only enactment of laws cannot make the people sympathise with disabled people. ‘We should put more emphasis on creating awareness,’ he added.
Access Bangladesh Foundation’s chairperson CM Tofayel Sami, executive director Albert Mollah and Disabilities Rights Watch Group’s convenor Kazi Rosy were present on the occasion, along with others.

Courtesy of NewAge