PRESIDENT Arif Alvi held an interactive session with senior journalists and editors on Tuesday apparently to involve the media to highlight the issues faced by the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and create awareness about their rights.
Over the last two years, the President and First Lady Samina Alvi played a leading role in creating awareness amongst the masses especially women about breast cancer and their this campaign has so far remained very successful by engaging with the media. We understand the same kind of campaign for PWDs will also go a long way in projecting and protecting the rights of special persons and eliminating the negative attitudes against them. The PWDs are not accepted as equal citizens in the society. Most people think of PWDs as beggars or the persons requiring charity. However, the fact is quite contrary as there are many special persons who have registered major successes in different fields and brought laurels to the country. These success stories also need to be highlighted in order to change the societal mindset as well as to ensure the social inclusion of the PWDs. Though there is no authentic data on the exact number of special persons in Pakistan but some estimates put it at 33 million. Only 10 per cent of them are able to enroll in any special education institution and only one per cent of them succeed in reaching any university. Moreover, only a few are able to find any job as the job quota law is never implemented in letter and spirit. Firstly there is a need to carry out a complete survey of PWDs to determine their exact figure and then policies should be chalked out to their welfare. We fully agree with the suggestion of the President that physically disabled and also the persons with visual and hearing impairment should be provided education at regular schools instead of separate institutions which resulted in their detachment from mainstream. For this the schools should be equipped with all the relevant and necessary facilities. In addition, the PWDs should also be encouraged to get technical training as it will open more opportunities for them. It is also for the political parties to create special wings on the PWDs that must help in the policy making on the promotion and protection of the rights of special persons.
