By : Zahoor Ahmad Lone
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a disabled person is anyone who has a problem in body function or structure, an activity limitation, and has a difficulty in extending a task or action. According to an estimate more than 1 billion persons in the world have some form of disability. This is about 15% of the world’s total population. According to the 2011 census in India the population of disabled persons is 2.68 crore which is 2.21% of the total population. Jammu and Kashmir has around 3.76 lakh population of disabled persons as per the census of 2011. Initially 07 types of disabilities were included in the disability list. Now according to The Rights Of Persons with Disability Act 2016, the types of disabilities have been increased to 21. Specially abled persons face a number of problems.
Being myself a specially abled person, I can feel the pain of these specially abled persons. Here I will highlight some major issues of specially abled persons with the hope that the authorities at the helm of affairs will take sympathetic consideration so that these persons may heave a sigh of relief.
Education: Education is the basic right for all humans. The specially abled persons face a number of difficulties in pursuing education. A number of Children with Special Needs (CWSN) remain out of school and thus are deprived of education. Due to the lack of Special schools for CWSN these children are not able to get education. In order to impart education to CWSN children , the government has taken initiative by the name of inclusive education .Under this initiative CWSN children are given education with normal children But this initiative has not yielded desired results. The main cause of the failure of this initiative is the lack of special teachers in schools. A common teacher is not able to teach a CWSN child having a disability other than orthopedic. For imparting education to CWSN children either the government should open at least one special school in a district where such children will get admitted or provide special teachers in schools to teach them.
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Unemployment: Most of the specially abled persons face the problem of unemployment. It is evident that a specially abled person cannot do manual work. Qualified specially abled persons fail to get government jobs. A specially abled person faces a number of hardships in pursuing education. No doubt the government provides 4% horizontal reservation to specially abled persons in government jobs .But this does not help a qualified specially abled person to get a government job easily. Firstly the reservation is very less as compared to the number of such persons and secondly the reservation is horizontal. The government must increase the reservation from 4% to at least 10% and provide vertical reservation like other categories are being provided. I think this section of the society deserves the most benefit of reservation than other reserved sections of the society. To deal with the problem of unemployment, the government should provide soft loans to specially abled persons for establishing income generating units .The loan should be interest free, subsidized and guarantor free. The provision of employment opportunities to these people will help them to live an independent life and will not rely on a government pension.
Accessibility: The special abled persons face several obstacles in every step they take. Mostly they move around in wheelchairs or use crutches. Most of the buildings in the government or public sector are not disabled friendly. They don’t have ramps or lifts so that such persons can have easy access to offices .This creates obstacles in the movement of these people. Mostly the banks are located in the Ist storey of the building.. The specially abled persons have often visited banks to get their monthly pension provided by the government. There they have to remain in queue with the normal persons to receive the pension. The bank authorities must keep a special counter for such persons preferably at ground floor for the comfort of these people. Once upon a time the government was providing pensions to these people at their door steps through the post office .This was indeed a great step. Government can revive this specially abled person’s friendly step.
There are some other examples where these people face difficulties like at hospitals where they have to stand in the same queue with normal persons for consulting a doctor .Special OPD should be there for such people in hospitals. The government is taking a number of steps for the welfare and rehabilitation of specially abled persons but the government needs much more to do for the uplifting of this section of the society. There have been a number of acts for such persons .The latest act is persons with disabilities act 2016.This act has a number of provisions for persons with disabilities like education, healthcare, rehabilitation, accessibility, sports, special court, equality etc. In Jammu and Kashmir UT this act has been implemented. But some chapters have not yet been constituted by the UT government like the constitution of SAB on disability, State Commissioner for persons with disabilities and District level committees for such persons. The government must take immediate steps for their constitution. Recently the charter of demands was presented to Hon’ble Union Minister Social Justice and Empowerment by the Organization of Specially abled persons at Bandipora. Also the issue of constitution of Board / committee was brought into the notice of Advisory to Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir at Bandipora by the Handicapped Association.
Some of the common demands of specially abled persons are:
Free education and compulsory education to CWSN children.
Reservation in every institution for specially abled children.
At least one special school for CWSN children in each district.
Vertical reservation in government jobs.
Enhancement in reservation from 4 to 10%
Reservation to specially abled employees in promotions.
Opening of two more Composite Regional Centres ( CRCs) one in north Kashmir and another in south Kashmir so that specially abled persons can get prosthetic aids and other services easily.
Providing interest free loans for establishing income generating units.
Enhancement of monthly pension from 1000/= to 5000/=
Separate indoor stadium for specially abled children.
Hope that the government will give due consideration to these demands for the welfare, uplifting and rehabilitation of specially abled persons. At last my appeal to specially abled persons is that take the disability as the blessings of Almighty Allah .Fight it with great spirit and don’t allow it to become an obstacle in your life .
Author is a specially abled person from Bandipora. He works in the education department as a teacher and is a member of JKGLTF. He can be mailed on zahoorlone1979@gmail.com
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