KARACHI, Dec 25: Naseem Ahmed, 35, is partially visually impaired. Holding a Bachelor of Arts degree, he has tried his hands at anchoring a programme on Radio Pakistan, playing cricket with the blind cricket team and running an NGO for people with disabilities. However, not everyone with a disability is as lucky as him, as Mr Ahmed has been able to get study material in Braille and has an aide as well. “The biggest problem I face is that of mobility. The transport system, like many other things in the country, is not friendly for people like us,” he said. The quick-witted Ahmed added that if he had not belonged to a family that could afford to take care of him, chances are that he might have ended up on the streets or begging outside a mosque for a living.

Nooruddin S. Bhamani, suffering from progressive muscular dystrophy, which makes his body movement practically impossible, apart from a finger or two of one hand and his facial muscles, agreed with Ahmed. Mr Bhamani runs an NGO which fights for the rights of people with disabilities.

“People are not that aware of how to deal with the disabled. If I go abroad, all the restaurants and universities have special arrangements like ramps and toilets for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Pakistan,” he said. “Ministers come and go, leaving people with false hope. We are human beings and all we demand is our fundamental human rights and not pity,” he added in a determined voice.

He said that people’s overall reaction to the disabled also makes them isolated. “People will refer to a visually impaired person as andha. And the person’s wife will be called andhey ki biwi,” said Bhamani. He suggested that it would be better to call a person by their first name instead of making their disability a name tag.

Fuzzy maths

There is a lot of confusion about the actual population of disabled persons in Pakistan. The Nation Census Report of 1998 shows the number of persons with disabilities to be not more than 2.5 per cent of the total population, whereas according to the same report’s 1986 records, the population is said to be not less than 10 per cent. On the other hand the World Health Organisation’s survey carried out in the 1980s said disabled persons formed up to 7 per cent of the national population. The confusion takes a deeper shade when there is no classification for the disabled available.

Though the day for special people is celebrated throughout the country with the government’s sugar-coated talk about two per cent of jobs being reserved for the disabled, the reality is quite different. According to The Gazette of Pakistan, someone qualifying for the disabilities’ quota is vaguely described as “a person, on account of injury, disease or congenital deformity, who is handicapped in education or for undertaking any gainful profession or employment in order to earn his livelihood, and includes a person who is blind, deaf, physically handicapped or mentally retarded.”

Researchers pinpoint the reason for the job crisis among the disabled to be the lack of education among them. The Secretariat of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) of the United Nations in its report Disability at a Glance mentions that “at present, only four per cent of the total number of school-going age (approximately 25,000) students with disabilities are enrolled in various schools/centres of the country.” Even a densely populated city like Karachi has only five educational institutes for children with disabilities being run by the city government.

“If a child is isolated from society from the very beginning making his/her disability an excuse for it, there is little chance that such a child can work and survive under ‘normal’ conditions,” said Prof Dr Abdul Hameed, Chairman, Department of Special Education at the University of the Punjab. He said the major reason for this might be the lack of education, skills (both communication and work) and the inability to adjust to the workplace environment.

“Everyone knows what the system is like. If you happen to see people with disabilities in various organisations, it might not be because of the government’s quota for them but chances are that it is their own personal contacts that have got them the job,” said Dr Hameed. He maintained that the government might have come up with legislation to protect the rights of the disabled in this regard, but it has not ensured implementation.

Bending the law

“Usually there is a nominal fine that the government imposes on institutions that do not meet the disabled job quota. Even though it is hardly paid, the employers consider it an easy way out. It is far more economical than spending money on building facilities like ramps, washrooms and other disabled-friendly amenities,” said Zulfiqar Shah, Manager, Research and Educational Training, Piler (Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research). He said that when ordinary labourers suffer in this system, there were very bleak chances of disabled workers attaining their rights. “We have hardly come across any organisation so far that has two per cent of its employees that are disabled,” he said.

Shahana Kaukab, Secretary of the Employers’ Federation, however, said that “it is usually the multinational companies that follow the rules as they do not want to be involved in any scandal whatsoever. However, the local organisations don’t bother about any laws and regulations and can get away with anything by putting money in the right pocket. Even some of the multinational companies play smart and hire people with cut marks or minor injuries to meet the quota for disabled people,” she added.

Nisar Khuhro, one of the Pakistan People’s Party’s seasoned politicians, said that the situation was nothing impressive. “The government of Sindh in particular is in a shambles in this regard. No one has got any jobs during the last five years, what to say about the special persons.”

History names people like Homer, Helen Keller, Beethoven, Franklin D. Roosevelt and others who, though they had certain disabilities, are remembered for their exceptional contributions to society. Pakistan might have also produced such geniuses if there was a better educational system in place for the disabled. Though a disability snatches one or more capabilities from a person, it should not mean the disabled should be denied their basic human rights.