IT was the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Dec 3. With it came the usual platitudes, speeches and ceremonies. We still have such a long way to go before PWDs can enjoy all the rights, privileges and opportunities that any society should offer all citizens.

It is not that we have not had progress. Some headway has been made. Though we do not have robust data as yet on PWDs, some government surveys, and even the census, have started factoring in disability status and functioning. The same has been initiated in some administrative data-gathering efforts at the government school level. Hopefully, such data-gathering efforts will become more comprehensive over time.

Initially, education policies did not even mention children with disabilities, who were not in the picture for quite a while post-independence. When they did appear in official documents, it was usually implied that education for PWDs was an act of charity and beneficence to make the children independent only to the extent of not remaining a ‘burden’ on their families or the state. For a long time, even when government documents said that education should be the right of each child (this was prior to the 18th Amendment when education was made a basic right), it was not extended to children with disabilities. Regarding them, the conversation was usually that the government did not have money to provide facilities to children with disabilities and that the private sector should come forward to perform this act of charity to ensure some training skills for them. These documents do not make for pleasant reading today.

By the 1990s, education policies in the country were acknowledging that children with disabilities needed access to education facilities. But it was still not seen as a right and most of the thinking was about separate institutions for these children.

The situation is not too different today. Though the 18th Amendment added Article 25A to the Constitution giving each child the right to “free and compulsory” education up to the age of 16, most children with disabilities remain unseen, unacknowledged and underserved. Though global estimates say that about 12-15 per cent of children might have special needs in any child population, with 40pc or so of our children malnourished these numbers can only be higher in Pakistan. Budgets for special education across the provinces are a small fraction of what is spent on mainstream education. And few, if any, of our schools are inclusive or welcoming of children with disabilities.

Most elite and even medium-fee private-sector schools do not allow children with disabilities to enrol in their schools. Some high-fee school administrators say quite openly that their school systems have a policy of not enrolling children with disabilities. Most feel that they do not have the resources to cater to their needs. Many feel it is hard enough for a teacher to manage a class of 35-odd children. Others feel it does not make financial sense to spend resources training teachers and providing other support if there are only a few children with disabilities who might enrol in their school. So, for any who try the schools reject them.

Most children with disabilities remain unseen, unacknowledged and underserved.

Some schools do claim that they are ‘inclusive’. For some, this is a requirement: for example, International Baccalaureate requires its schools to be inclusive. But even for many such schools, the requirement for ‘inclusion’ is more lip-service than an actual effort to be inclusive.

One parent whose child is on the autism spectrum told me that though she was paying for a shadow teacher’s salary in addition to the usual fee of the elite ‘inclusive’ school, her child was mostly ignored by teachers in the class. She was allowed to sit in class but was mostly left alone. The teachers left everything to the shadow teacher but given the high turnover of shadow teachers, her child was not learning anything though attending school every day. This did not seem to bother the teachers or school administrators.

The parent had tried hard to communicate more with the administrators but was shut out to the point that she is now afraid to raise any issue fearing that the school might turn her child away. One day, recently, the child was being a bit disruptive in class, talking loudly as she was upset about something, and her teachers ended up locking her in the storeroom for two hours. The ‘reason’ was to calm the child. The parent is heartbroken but feels she cannot go to the school and complain as they might tell her to take the child to another school.

How can this be acceptable? Why are parents afraid to advocate and stand up for their children? They are afraid because society is still giving signals, and strong ones, that services provided to children with disabilities are a ‘favour’. It is not a matter of rights or duty of care. It is ‘charity’ and ‘beneficence’. Society’s mindset is still stuck in that rut, placing an uncalled for and undue burden on parents of children with disabilities and the latter themselves. Schools are places where children go to learn. It is the place where we should be setting standards and pushing boundaries. If schools reinforce existing outmoded beliefs, it is a sad commentary on our education system and society.

The government has to come forward as well. Rather than just having celebratory events and moving forward at a snail’s pace, the government should take the lead and create the narrative and reality of recognition and implementation of all citizens’ rights and privileges — for PWDs as well. It should also provide the framework for the private sector. No one should be allowed to get away with disrespecting any person including a child. No one should be denied rights that all should have. Society has a duty to care for every person, and especially those who need the most support.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at Lums.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2025