Living with disability

People with disabilities of various kinds are capable of living extremely full and profitable lives. In our own country, this has been demonstrated by students who have passed high-level exams, despite suffering blindness or hearing loss of various kinds, and others in wheelchairs. The new law passed last year by parliament, protecting the rights of the disabled, brings Pakistan closer in line with other countries on protecting disabled persons and giving them the right to live a full life. While statistics are limited, it is believed that around 15 percent of the Pakistani population is facing one or the other disability challenge. To better understand the situation, in the first place, we need a full survey to determine how many disabled people live in Pakistan and how they survive.

The International Day of Disabled Persons, which fell on December 3, was a reminder that the law already in place requiring enterprises and businesses to hire at least two percent of disabled persons as part of their workforce is frequently ignored by those hiring workers for various jobs. This is despite the fact that disability does not necessarily mean a total incapacity to perform functions of various kinds, depending on the disability in question and the work assigned to the person. There have been campaigns seeking more rights for the disabled. This includes the placement of ramps at public places including offices, shops, and other buildings so that people using wheelchairs or walkers can access them. It has been noted that, while some stores have indeed put up ramps, these are often so badly constructed that they are next to useless. The next step we need is to educate people on what is required and how to ensure that any equipment put up for the use of disabled people is functional. This includes the way public toilets are built and other amenities in offices which can make their life a little easier and enable them to offer their skills to the workplace.

It is encouraging that we have greater awareness of rights for disabled people in Pakistan. The next step is to implement the requirements of the law and bring it in line with the international requirements, so that Pakistan's disabled people can give all that they have to society and bring forward the multiple skills that they possess in various lines of work. This is a possibility and it is one that needs to be enforced across the country.