Special persons’ day

Like other civilised countries of the world, Pakistan too is observing December 3 as the United Nations International Day of Persons with Diabilities 2008. This time the theme is: "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Dignity and justice for all of us." The theme of the day is based on the goal of full and equal enjoyment of human rights and participation in society by persons with disabilities, established by the World Programme of Action concerning disabled persons, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1982. The official title of the day was changed from International Day of Disabled Persons to International Day of Persons with Disabilities by the General Assembly resolution 62/127 on December 18, 2007. As the coincidence would have it, dignity and justice is the theme for special persons' day as well as for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 25 of the UDHR provides that each person has "the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control". Due to its peculiar geographical location, Peshawar has been witnessing right from the late 1970s the arrival of refugees from the war-ravaged Afghanistan. Irrationally conceived, clumsily fought and unwisely prolonged war has left in its wake untold tales of misery, dislocation and disaster. It has killed and maimed hundreds and thousands of innocent civilians as well as actively involved fighters. Exploding landmines have blown away the arms and legs of several human beings. Every Afghan family had one or more members with physical disabilities. So much so that the government had to set up a full-fledged paraplegic centre in Phase V of Hayatabad, where artificial limbs were prepared for the special persons under the supervision of orthopedic doctors. A number of physically handicapped persons are working in the NWFP metropolis as taxi-cab drivers, cobblers or artisans. Approximately 10 per cent of the world's population, or 650 million people, live with one or the other disability. In this context, they are the world's 'largest minority'. According to the United Nations, the comparative studies on disability legislation show that only 45 countries have anti-discrimination and other disability-specific laws.

The poverty rate for the disabled is at an alarming rate internationally. If one goes by the World Bank estimates, 20 per cent of the world's poorest people have some kind of disability. Unfortunately, they tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most disadvantaged. Physical disability and the treasure of human compassion is not restricted only to refugees from this or that region. Many of the sons of soil also carry disabilities which are there by birth or have been the result of an accident. The society in general is hostile to physically challenged people. On paper the professional colleges and seats of higher learning have a special quota for the physically handicapped students but ground realities outside the medical colleges and engineering universities are shockingly different. A bus driver would rather like to speed away than step on the brakes, stop the vehicle and pick a passenger on crutches or in a wheelchair. Honestly speaking, how many shopkeepers or owners of departmental stores amongst us would gladly hire a salesperson with a physical disability? Proposals for marriage get spurned for the lack of symmetry in physical appearance or an absence of a sense of proportion. The increasing number of beauty parlours and clinics of plastic surgeons around us shows how particular we are about physical correctness. December 3 reminds us once again of the need to create awareness in society about the rights of the physically challenged people.