Disability is neither a curse nor an obstacle to success. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 600 million disabled persons in the world, of which approximately 80 percent live in low-income countries. Someone has rightly said that, “Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength”. This is certainly true if we look at some of these people around us and the role they are playing for the progress and development of our society. There is no denying the fact that the government has also taken many initiatives to give these people their due rights, but a lot more needs to be done..
It is pertinent to mention that the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities promotes, protects and ensures the full and equal availability of all human rights and fundamental civil freedom to all persons with disabilities and promotes respect for their inherent dignity. Therefore, every effort should be made to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disabilities and such persons must be given their due rights and share so that they could contribute to the development of the country in an active manner.
Syed Ali Qasim (Lahore)