The rights and needs of people with disabilities are often overlooked in the planning, designing, and building of healthcare facilities, leaving them unable to access available services. This neglect amplifies their vulnerability and negatively impacts their health and well-being.
The government currently operates 103 Disability Service and Support Centers in 64 districts and 39 sub-districts, aimed at providing therapeutic services to disabled populations in remote areas.
These centers offer free therapeutic, counseling, and referral services, as well as assistive devices, to people with autism and other disabilities. However, many of these centers are not easily accessible to people with disabilities.
For example, the Disability Service and Support Center in Bandarban is situated at the top of a hill, making it difficult for people with disabilities to access it.
Gorgh Tripura, a resident of Bandarban, highlighted this accessibility issue.
On April 2, 2010, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina officially inaugurated the Disability Service and Support Center program. Efforts are underway to establish an additional 422 centers in two phases, extending services to the sub-district level.
As of August 2023, 809,380 registered service recipients at these Disability Service and Support Centers had completed 10,548,715 service transactions, according to the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons.
Experts emphasize that people with disabilities are integral members of our population. Given the opportunity, they can contribute significantly and become creative partners in all areas of development.
According to the National Survey on Persons with Disabilities (NSPD) 2021 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), there are 4.62 million persons with disabilities in the country, which is 2.8 per cent of the total population. Among them, 2.68 million are male and 1.93 million are female. Physical disabilities are the most common, affecting 1.35 per cent of the population. Other types of disabilities include visual, hearing, multiple, speech, mental illness, intellectual, cerebral palsy, and autism.
The survey also revealed that 1.7 per cent of children in Bangladesh live with one of the twelve types of disabilities defined in the Persons with Disability Rights and Protection Act 2013, while 3.6 per cent of children face functional difficulties in at least one domain, such as seeing, hearing, walking, fine motor skills, communication, learning, playing, or controlling behavior.
Adequate medical treatment for children with disabilities has not yet been established at the district and sub-district levels. Many parents are unaware that autism can be effectively treated. Even those who are aware often do not seek treatment for their children.
Experts said a collective effort is necessary to ensure proper medical care for these children and to eliminate societal superstitions.
Sources said that most of the government hospitals in the country are not supportive of treatment for people with disabilities.
In addition, doctors and nurses do not have adequate training in treating the person with disabilities. In this, a large part of the disabled are completely deprived of treatment in government hospitals.
Dr Lenin Chowdhury, chairman of the medicine department at the Health and Hope Hospital, said, “To build an inclusive society by removing barriers, we must ensure a better future for people with disabilities through inclusive development.”
“It’s important to remember that no development is sustainable if the population is not healthy. Therefore, ensuring quality healthcare for people with disabilities is essential,” he added.
