Ever since the inception of Pakistan, the laws regarding the persons with disability have seen a lag. While today, the discussion around disability is at the forefront and the priority of many, there has been a plethora of struggles that the persons with disability saw to get their voices heard.
Several laws have been passed to preserve the rights for all in general, and for those with disabilities in particular, including the article 25A of Pakistan’s constitution, the Disability ordinance in 1981, the National Policy for Persons with Disability on 2002, the National Plan of Action for Persons with Disability in 2006, the later amendments in the ordinance. Further, the most recent uproar after the underrepresentation of persons with disabilities in the census and the following developments regarding laws that have led up to the “Pakistan Disability Act 2018” being endorsed by the Baluchistan and KP government, and the Sindh “Empowerment of Persons with Disability Act 2018”.
The article 25A of Pakistan’s constitution states: “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law”. Despite having this law in place that holds the government accountable for the education of all children between the ages of 5-16 years, there are currently 11% girls and 8% boys out of school in Pakistan (ASER, 2016). Considering those with disability, according to the census of 1998 the prevalence of those with a disability was 2.49% and according to the latest census of 2017, the percentage came out to be even low; 0.48%. This implies that in the past 20 years, the percentage of persons with disabilities has declined, while on the other hand, according to WHO, in Pakistan 27 million people are living with a disability. The recent push by the DPO’s and PWDs regarding this underrepresentation has led to the Supreme Court ordering the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to incorporate the Washington Group of Questions in the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurements (PSLM) survey, whose report is expected to be out in 2019. Furthermore, the Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) completed for 2017-2018 gathered data for persons with disabilities using the Washington Group’s short set of questions and representing the national level and rural and urban level separately, along with 4 provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and 4 regions (Islamabad, Gilgit Baltistan, AJK and FATA). According to this survey, 2-9% of the people between the ages of 5-49 years, experience either a lot of difficulty or cannot do a task at all in at least one of the domains assessed by the Washington Group of Questions.
The underrepresentation of persons with disabilities has a direct impact on the provision of their rights, including education, social security, health etc., maybe more than the impact of these policies and laws. During the middle of conducting a survey in government school, a colleague observed that in an ECE classroom, a girl was not being given the opportunity to speak, even on raising her hand. This provoked the girl to get the teacher’s attention through undesired behavior such as crying and screaming to which she got what she needed, the teacher’s attention. According to the teachers at the school, the girl was “not fine” and was “slow”. However, upon assessing her, she responded well and it seemed that she just needed a little extra attention to be taught. This represents the lack of resources spent on building teacher awareness and teacher expertise to include and teach students of varying abilities in their class rooms. This further highlights the gap between the policy and laws at the top, which holds the government accountable for the education of all children, and the ground realities at the bottom.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA)
