The country has disabled-friendly laws, legislations and goodwill, but
still lags behind in supporting one of its most marginalised
communities, said participants at a function organised at the City Hall
in Kathmandu on Sunday.
One of the recent legal victories for the people with disabilities was
the passage of the Guidelines for the Access of Persons with
Disabilities in Physical Environment and Information and Communication
Services, 2013, in mid-February.
“And yet we were unable to make the City Hall administrators agree to
make the programme venue disabled-friendly,” rued Shudharshan Subedi,
chairperson of the National Federation of the Disabled Nepal (NFDN), one
of the organisers of the programme. The others were the Ministry for
Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) and UNICEF Nepal.
Dinesh Hari Adhikary, secretary of the MoWCSW, the focal ministry on
issues with disability, however assured that the government is keen on
implementing the guidelines. “It will take some time to make the
existing structures disabled-friendly. But new state buildings will be
accessible to persons with disability,” he said.
Minister of the same ministry, Riddhi Baba Pradhan, also assured
persons with disabilities that the ministry would listen to the
recommendations made in the ‘State of the World’s Children 2013 -
Children with Disabilities’ report. The report was launched by UNICEF
Nepal at the same programme.
According to the report, children with disabilities are 3.6 times more
likely to experience physical violence than their peers without
disabilities. Children with mental and intellectual disabilities are 4.6
times more likely to experience sexual violence than their peers
without disabilities.
According to the World Report on Disability, published jointly by the
WHO and the World Bank in 2011, 15 percent of the world’s population is
disabled, of which 95 million are children. The 2011 census says 1.94 of
the Nepal’s population lives with disability.
Source : ekantipur , 3rd June 2013
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