Access and control over productive resources and decent living standards seems like a distant dream for the majority of Persons With Disability (PWDs) in Nepal. Various studies conducted in the districts of Dhankuta, Panchthar, Bhaktapur, Palpa, Baglung, Parwat, Myagdi, Kalikot, Kanchanpur, Mugu, Doti and Nubakot, all initiated by local disability organizations, reveal that 61.05 percent of the PWDs are not engaged in any work and are completely reliant on their family members. The fact that 97 percent of them have no livelihood-related skills hints at a very dark future for this community. The situation is compounded by the fact that they hardly receive any parental property, an important source of livelihood and dignity.
The unwillingness of the families to transfer parental property to disabled members makes them dependent on charity. Offering charity and subsidy to PWDs is a widespread practice in our society, rather than respecting, promoting, fulfilling and protecting their various human rights for all-round development of those living with disability. On the one hand, the PWDs are seen as a liability for the family and society and on the other, the trend of family fragmentation has a disproportionate impact on the livelihood and caring of PWDs.
PHOTO: THE HINDU
By and large Nepali workforce denies PWDs’ right to work, neglecting the potential and competence of this population group. According to conservative estimates, less than 5 percent PWDs have access to gainful and meaningful livelihood opportunities. The one-day career expo for the persons with disability organized recently in Kathmandu revealed the high rate of joblessness among those living with disabilities. Thousand of the PWDs participated with zeal, and within a few hours 400 PWDs had even registered their CVs electronically. The high rate of overall unemployment makes the situation for PWDs even worse. Outsourcing productive labor to foreign countries has become increasingly popular. Qualified and even physically powerful PWDs, however, cannot aspire for employment abroad.
Even the 5 percent quota allocated for PWDs out of the total 45 seats for the marginalized and backward section of the population in the Civil Servant Act has not been fully realized owing to lack of job related skills, academic qualification, enabling environment and communication barriers. Thus, the PWDs are being deprived of the right to property, work and livelihood, contributing to their sense of powerlessness, acute poverty, extreme hunger and dehumanization. The conventional approach and attitude towards disability perpetuate stereotypes, negative values and dependency of the PWDs.
While we look at the global scenario, PWDs are entrepreneurs and self-employed workers, farmers and factory workers, doctors and teachers, professors and lawyers, shop assistants and bus drivers, artists, and computer technicians. Almost any job can be performed by PWDs, and given an enabling environment, most of them are highly productive, even more so than those with no disabilities. There are many examples of people in Nepal living with visual, hearing and locomotive disabilities who have successfully competed for respectable jobs in a variety of sectors including schools, colleges, civil service, NGOs and businesses. But they continue to be in the minority.
Tourism entrepreneur Shyam Sunder Lal Kakshapati started the trend by hiring deaf people as the staff at one of his Nanglo Restaurants a decade ago and today he provides employment to some 120 persons with disability. The 40 visually impaired musicians hired in various hotels and restaurants in Kathmandu have been able to win the hearts and minds of the visitors and guests, further proving the productive capacity of the PWDs.
Livelihood empowerment is an effective tool to promote holistic development of the poor and excluded. It’s the same for PWDs.
The visually impaired persons operating the reception of Kathmandu Model Hospital render the most efficient services. In addition the fighting attitude shown by PWDs in rural villages to earn their livelihood is worth mentioning as well. They have overcome great barriers to be gainfully employed in activities like tilling, weaving and knitting, petty business, tailoring and livestock. However, their hard work and contribution to the society is seldom recognized. Instead, the family as well as the larger society tends to take undue advantage of them.
Livelihood empowerment is an effective tool to promote holistic development and protect the human rights of the poor and excluded. PWDs are no exception. If these strategies have been proven to be effective with the poor and excluded, there is no reason they cannot work in the case of PWDs. PWDs are capable of being employed in any job, formal or informal, in self-entrepreneurship and agro-based activities. Given this, there can be no justification for ignoring the livelihood opportunities for PWDs.
It is high time for all stakeholders to formulate and execute inclusive livelihood strategy—making all the formal and informal job providers responsible for the livelihood of this population. Even though the government’s role is crucial in facilitating the process and ensuring the enabling mechanism, every concerned stakeholder is responsible for the wellbeing of PWDs.
The author is associated with ActionAid
meenraj.panthee@live.com
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