President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday stressed upon the need for a comprehensive and effective awareness campaign to highlight the rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
He also emphasized upon the steps for bringing behavioural changes in society and removing of psychological and physical barriers in PWDs’ mainstreaming, and their financial and economic empowerment as equal members of society. The president expressed these views during a presentation on plans for an awareness campaign on PWDs given by Press Secretary to President Qamar Bashir at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
First Lady, Begum Samina Arif Alvi and senior officials of the President’s Secretariat also attended the meeting, President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release. Addressing the meeting, the president said that Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) or Differently Abled Persons (DAPs) constituted an important segment of the population and it was the duty of the relevant stakeholders and the society in general to ensure their inclusiveness in all aspects of life, including political, economic, finance, business, trade and services.
He called for removing psychological and physical barriers to realize the full potential of PWDs and creating enabling conditions for PWDs to help them become productive members of society.
The president said that there was a need to relook at their attitudes towards DAPs and bring proactive reforms in the education system from the grassroots level to educate the students at all levels regarding the rights of DAPs and the obligations and responsibilities of society to stop stereotyping them, stop the name-calling, harassment or intimidation of DAPs which were the biggest impediment towards the inclusiveness of the DAPs as fully empowered and productive member of the society. During the meeting, the participants of the meeting were briefed about the overall situation of PWDs, societal perceptions towards PWDs, the role of media in creating awareness about the rights of PWDs, etiquettes.
