‘Mentality of disability among us’ impedes societal mainstreaming of differently-abled persons: CM Murad Ali Shah

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that “a mentality of disability exists among us” and it is the main obstacle to giving space to the differently-abled persons and allowing them to grow in the societal mainstream.

“I am committed to rehabilitating the persons with disabilities and giving them their due share in every walk of life, right from education to employment opportunities,” he said while delivering his presidential speech at a programme organised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities on Tuesday to mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities at the CM House.

The programme was attended by provincial cabinet members, secretaries and members of the civil society in a large number.

The CM recalled that on December 3, 2016, on the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, he had been working in his office when his staff told him that differently-abled persons sitting in their wheelchairs were staging a protest outside the CM House. “I called them inside the [CM] House, but they couldn’t reach the secretariat floor because it had no ramp facility,” he said and added it had hurt him so much and the next day he got constructed ramps at all the gates of the CM House/Secretariat.

Shah said he had not done as much work as he should have done for differently-abled persons during his tenure as chief minister of the province, but “what I have done is the difference seen today on December 3; you are celebrating your international day with us instead of staging protests for your rights.”

He said his government had created a separate full-fledged department for the empowerment of differently-abled persons so that they could be empowered through education, physiotherapy, medical treatment, encouragement and sports. And top of it, he added, they could be made enabled to compete for government service jobs for which a proper quota had been allocated.

The chief minister said the schools for differently-abled children had not only been overhauled and made functional, but they had been developed as centres of excellence where

apart from education complete therapy of the students was being done to make them useful and effective members of the society. “We are also supporting the private sector in providing quality and cheap education and training to the students having disabilities.”

On the occasion, small children clad in cultural dresses performed tableaus on different cultures of the country, presented beautiful colours and earned applause. The children also performed on the national anthem and national songs and displayed their abilities by demonstrating different exercises.

The stage was decorated with beautiful ribbons of different colours and a video wall was installed on which art and craft works and educational and therapy exercises were shown. On the screen, the Dow University’s unit was shown which was providing artificial limbs to persons who became disabled in road accidents, polio attacks and natural disasters.

Driving licences

The chief minister distributed driving licences among persons with hearing impairment. He said that in order to issue them with driving licences the law had been amended and this credit went to his government being the first one to issue such licences.