Rights activists called for activating district committee as per ‘Rights and Protection of Persons with Disability Act of 2013’ for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
They made the call at a discussion on activating district level committee as per the law. This event was arranged by Visually Impaired People’s Society (VIPS) with the support of Somotar Bangladesh Campaign, and Sightsavers at the National Press Club in the capital on Sunday.
Shahidul Islam, Additional Director (Institution) of Department of Social Services, attended the event as the chief guest.
He stressed on the protection and accessibility for persons with disabilities. He called for making concerted efforts of all concerned, including the government and non-government organizations, for implementing the law.
Chaired by Advocate Musherraf Hossain Mazumder, president of VIPS, Supreme Court lawyer Mosleh
Uddin, Ershad Ali, lecturer of National Centre for Special Education, A.S.M Ashiqur Rahman Amit, General Secretary of VIPS, Md. Jahangir Alam, executive member of VIPS, Md. Saidul Huq, Executive Director of Blind Education and Rehabilitation Development Organization (BERDO), Nasrin Jahan, Founder and Executive Director of Disabled Child Organization (DCF), among others, spoke at the meeting.
Enacted about 10 years ago to ensure the rights of people with disabilities, the ‘Rights and Protection of Persons with Disability Act of 2013’ stipulated for forming committees at various levels, including national and district level, as part of implementing the law, they said.
To be headed by concerned deputy commissioner, the district level committee on protecting the rights of persons with disabilities is supposed to implement the decision of national committee, and to send at least one report to the national committee in a year regarding its activities as per Articles 21 and 22 of the law, they said.
The district level committee is also supposed to coordinate and supervise the activities of its town and upazila level committees and other government and non-government organizations at district level for protecting the rights of people with special needs, they observed.
But the district level committee, comprising various district level government officials, is irregular in its activities, including holding its regular meeting. Hence, the matter of implementing the law has become uncertain, they said.
They said such a situation is likely to hamper the issue of rights and protection of persons with disabilities, who comprise about 10 percent of the country’s total population.
In order to build a disability-friendly Smart Bangladesh, the speakers demanded keeping the representatives of disabled people into the committee, formation of disability affairs ministry, providing employment facilities to disabled people, and raising the monthly allowance for persons with disabled people to Tk. 5000.
