ACCESS to gainful employment is one of the many challenges that people with disabilities face in a society where their needs and concerns largely do not register with policymakers. Hopefully, that challenge, at least for some of them, may become less insurmountable in the near future. The Punjab government on Monday informed the Supreme Court during the hearing of a case about the rights of the disabled, that it had approved a management information system for online registration and assessment of such individuals. According to the report submitted in the apex court, this will generate data enabling people with disabilities to more efficiently locate suitable jobs against the 3pc quota for them in the public and private sectors.

None of the provinces implement the official job quota for the disabled in a consistent manner, so it is encouraging that Punjab is putting in place a more streamlined and modern system. The crux of the problem, however, lies in our backward-looking attitudes towards disability of any kind. Our society considers people with disabilities — which can be physical, mental, cognitive, developmental, etc — an irrelevance, even a matter of shame. Until there is a change, they will continue to remain marginalised — indeed, invisible. For, according to the results of the 1998 census, people with disabilities comprised only 2.38pc of the population. According to Census 2017, they number even less — 0.48 of the total, a drop of 80pc. How can policies be properly formulated or adequate funding allocated when the government is working with such implausible figures? In fact, the decision to count the disabled separately was taken on the first day of the census itself, that too on the apex court’s orders; the UNFPA monitoring mission’s report noted that enumerators seldom asked the question at all. Few commercial establishments, including educational institutions, offices, etc put any thought into facilitating the disabled, which increases their isolation; it is estimated that 90pc of children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries do not go to school. Even high achievers among the disabled meet with institutional prejudice. Pakistan got its first visually impaired civil judge last June; until the Supreme Court intervened, the lawyer was being denied the chance of being elevated to the bench despite having topped the relevant exam. Only an inclusive system that affords them respect rather than pity, opportunity rather than charity, can tap the true potential of the disabled.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2018