Barrier-Free Environment Need Of The Disabled

By Prakash Dahal

DISABLED men or women are those who have one or more impairments and experience barriers in society. The problems of disabled vary according to the circumstances and the country in which they live. Men and women with disabilities are always a disadvantaged group whether they live in a developed country or under-developed.

Severe

However, their problems are more severe and their life more complex in a country which falls in the under-developed category. The conservative mind-set of society they live in and the prevailing superstitions aggravate their problems further. Disabled men and women have fewer opportunities to take part, to take action and to make change.

In many societies of the least or under-developed countries, people still see disability as a consequence of the sins they had committed sins in their previous lives. And, that they should stoically bear the pain and suffering. Any complains or attempt to redeem their miseries is tantamount to defiance to the Almighty. They are expected to purge themselves through the pains and sufferings that fell to their share, so that they will be freed from their present disabilities in the next life.

This superstitious bent of mind governing the thought process of these backward societies has psychologically crippled these men and women with disabilities. The psychological barrier created is more difficult to dismantle than economic barriers emanating from disabilities, deformities and impairments.

Disability results from physical or mental impairment. Disability may be congenital or one resulting from accidents, injuries, malnutrition or unhygeinic environment. Disability causes a heavy socio-economic as well as psychological loss to an individual who is the victim and send serious repercussions to his family and society at large.

The loss of pride, dignity and self-respect represents the socio-psychological loss which is greater than loss of economic opportunities. Even to pursue an economic activity, he or she has to face numerous barriers which perpetually keep discouraging them.

In the world of global capitalism, the men and women with disabilities have to wage a fierce struggle for a dignified existence. They have to set their pace with people who , unlike them, are in better position both physically, intellectually and emotionally. Above all, the socio-psychological factor many prove too painful and ever discouraging to these men and women with disabilities.

Nepal, a tiny Himalayan country is populated by , nearly 24.6 million people. Her development endeavours against her land-locked geography compounded by the natural calamities that decimate human lives and properties, has been really daunting.

Disabled population in the country is feared to have been on the rise. However, there is no authentic statistics available on the disability population in the country. A few fragmentary surveys have been conducted by both the government and non-government agencies, but they do not really represent the actual population of men and women with disabilities.

A sampling survey conducted is 1980 estimates the disability population as 3 per cent. On the contrary, WHO ( World Health Organization) estimates the population to be as high as 10 per cent in developing countries. Opinions have always been at loggerheds regarding a disability population in the country.

The Government has completed a survey recently. However, the report is yet to come out.

Though beset with innumerable problems owing to its landlocked geography, rugged terrain and nature-caused havoc, some efforts have been made to better lives of men and women with disabilities in Nepal. However, such efforts fall short to the legitimate need and the judicious requirements of disables. Efforts like CBR programmes, loan disbursements for micro-credit schemes, awareness programs as well as skill development training programs have been launched by non-governmental organizations and the Governmental Agencies as well.

Till now, all efforts, be it from NGOs, INGOs or government agencies, are directed towards empowering disabled men and women with skills in hope that it would enable them to live a life of self-respect and dignity in the society where they live.

And, to this end, various skill development trainings targeting disabled population have been carried out. Such efforts have undoubtedly benefited disabled men and women, to some
extent. However, owing to the numerous barriers on their ways, they have not been able to exploit those skills in terms of real benefit. And the reason is the existing barriers.

Use of modern technologies and the development drive triggered by it has never been sensitive enough towards this deprived section of society which are known as disabled. And, those responsible for ushering in the modern technologies perhaps never realize that there are their fellow-citizens who too, should be facilitated in using them. The urban cities keep on shaking off its out moded transport and ushering in newer facilities from trolley buses to micro-buses, but for the disabled commuters, they make no sense. The difficulties they faced while ascending and descending transport facilities 20 years ago, is all the same with these new mode of transport.

They built multi-story buildings and keep their offices on top floor. They never realize how their disabled brothers and sisters would be able to make it. They have the staircases, but how could the disabled wheel-chair themselves in? They build the over-head crossings. But are they sensitive enough to the need of those of their fellow citizens who are treacherously conspired by their fate?

They build the sub-way. Are they also meant for the disabled?

The barriers are there. And, they are everywhere; and every moment they face them.

The authorities and the modern day development experts must realize that the disabled, handicapped or physically deformed too, may prove potential asset to this nation.

Bottom Line

Furthermore, the resources and the manpower used in bettering the plight of disabled will not pay so long the barriers exist. The bottom line is that the concerned authorities should refrain from taking an ostrich-like attitude and be extra sensitive towards the legitimate and the judicious need of disabled population. Or else, we’ll be watering the sands in a foolish hope that some day plants will grow.

Laos’ Hidden Rebellion

By Steve Kirby

Charred timbers litter the main street of this former royal capital Muang Khoun, in the Laotian mountains in a daily reminder of a worsening insurgency the communist authorities are struggling to hide.

Untouched

Residents say five people were killed, two of them children, and 14 wounded the night the rebels came. Ashes are all that remain of the 17 homes that once faced the central market in a town which residents say was previously untouched by a rebellion by the province’s 30 per cent Hmong minority that has simmered since the end of the Vietnam War.

Western diplomats have expressed mounting concern about the escalating violence and last month the US embassy slapped a travel advisory on the whole of the surrounding province of Xiang Khouang.

But the killings here are the only ones provincial authorities are prepared to acknowledge this year.

"Around 20 of them came into town firing their guns in the air and shouting," said Chai, 18, as she tended a makeshift tea stall in the charred remains of her home.

"We all just ran out and hid while they ransacked and burned our homes," said Chai, who like most people in the mountains has no family name.

Xiang Khouang has long been prey to sporadic attacks which have made travel on some roads dangerous.

An anti-communist militia which duirng the Vietnam war,the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited from among the Hmong was never completely eliminated by a massive Vietnamese military intervention in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

But Muang Khun is a district capital, home to several government offices, and residents say January’s attack was unprecedented and created an atmosphere of insecurity throughout the district.

"It was a real shock — nothing like this had ever happaened in our town until this year," said Thitbounpan, who runs the town’s biggest cafe.

"There are two army garrisons near the town, but they didn’t stop the attack. Now we’ve got our own armed guards but people are still too scared to leave their homes at night.

"We used to get a steady stream of tourists but we’ve hardly seen any since the attack," he said.

The secretive Lao authorities require all overseas journalists to be accompanied by a foreign ministry minder, making people reluctant to speak out.

But residents said the pattern of killings and insecurity had been repeated elsewhere in the province this year.

Just a few weeks ago, rebels killed three people in a village on the main road to Vientiane, one resident said, and travellers said the Lao army had been preventing foreigners from using the road in recent weeks.

Even the provincial capital of Phonsavan, a town of some 30,000 people with a nearby military air base, is ringed by checkpoints at night which prevent the dozen or so expatriate aid staff and small trickle of foreign tourists from travelling aftar dark.

Western diplomats say the mountain attacks on valley communities are the result of a sharp escalation in fighting this year in the Hmongs’ traditional home in the high mountains.

They say they have credible reports from Lao forces that a major rebel offensive this spring forced the Lao army to call in Vietnamese combat troops for the first time since the 1980s.

But provincial officials insist the warnings of Western embassies are unjustified.

"There’s no security threat in Xiang Khouang province, just a few isolated acts of banditry in which hardly anyone has been killed," said provincial cabinet secretary Khampao.

The communist authorities here dismiss all opposition to their rule as the work of bandits and robbers.

But in an oddly inconsistent line, Khampao said these robbers operated over large distances and attracted foreign support.

"The robbers in Xaysamboun special zone (a military-controlled zone between Xiang Khoung and the capital) are the same as here," he said.

"This group receives some foreign support — sometimes they come down the hills into Phonsavan to telephone overseas."

Diplomats believe there are as many as 4,000 Hmong rebels in the northern mountains, divided between two main groups, who continue to draw support from the tens of thousands of Hmong who were given asylum in the United States after the Vietnam War.

Analysts say their numbers have been swelled by the Lao government’s policy of resettling mountain peoples in the valleys, which has sparked opposition among Hmong reluctant to abandon their traditional livelihood of shifting cultivation and opium production.

A major road improvement programme in the province funded by the Asian Development Bank has helped the government intensify the policy in the past two years, and a string of newly resettled Hmong villages now lines the road from Phonsavan to Muang Khoun.

Policy

Khampao acknowledged that the resetlement policy was creating outlaws who often resorted to joining the robbers.

"Some people don’t like the government’s policy and resist it by taking to the forests and joining the robbers.

"But it’s government policy — every country has its laws," he said.

AFP

Women & Parental Property Rights

By Binita Joshi

THE patriarchal society of the country has limited the parental property rights only to the sons. Only sons can inherit the ancestral property as parents consider the sons as old age security providers. They are the ones to perform funeral rites as per the Hindu religion and the torchbearers of family name. In such a situation, the women are totally ousted from property rights or any other rights that the automatically receive by dint of being males in Nepalese society.

Not only property rights, women have been getting limited rights from history. The status of women had always been very low. They have always been regarded as a second class citizens although women do more work than men. The short life span of women compared to men and the highest maternal death rate in South Asian region show a clear picture of women’s plight in Nepal. In today’s world it is almost difficult to differentiate between a man and a woman—except at one point where women are more emotional, sentimental and kind hearted and they bear the pain of bringing a new life into existence. All these qualities of women should have given them a status equal to men. But these same attributes a seem to be lack upon by men as drawbacks instead of strength.

Even when women are working and earning to make a better living, it is always men who are regarded to breadwinners. It is also seen that women even do not have their individual rights, as they are judged not for what they are but to whom they are married too. The women’s individuality alone is not weighty and worthy until and unless their men are of substance. If not, why are the wives of "Mantris" called "Mantrayanis" without much effort on their part? The village women work more and harder than their respective husbands, but their situation is even worse. Even after devoting over two decades for women uplift, the situation has not changed yet. Women still face identify crisis.

There are many reasons behind such plat of women.Most of the rural women are deprived of education as girls have always been regarded as lobourers. Most of the parents feel it is a wastage of money to educate girls and they are reared up doing the household chores and helping their mothers in the farms. The mothers being illiterate would not be able to emphasise on girl-child education. Had they been educated they would have fought to give education to their daughters. It proves the importance of women education. "When a father in the house is educated he is the one only educated but in the case of educated mother, the whole house is educated."

A marked preference for a son is more prevalent in the rural families due to the age old tradition as parents thinks sons are the old-age pillar of support and security and the daughters, after marriage, leave the house. The saying "Sons are sons until they get wives but daughters are daughters all through their lives" is mere rhetoric because there are hardly one per cent parents who regard their daughters equally to sons.

A women has to be above 34 and unmarried to have a claim over the family property rights. But sons inherit the right as soon as they are born. Especially in the rural families, where a change in the women’s lots is next to impossible until there is property rights for women as well.

Women are regarded as a weaker sex and sons as strong and superior as they can earn their own living. In this context, it makes more sense in giving the property rights to daughters, as this could be an incentive in their lives. As of now, the women are married off and are reduced to be puppets as they depend solely on their husbands. But if they have some asset of their own they do not have to be economically and psychologically shaky. And the husbands might even treat them better. Whenever there are issues on parental rights it is always said that the women will be benefiting the most by having claim to both the sides-property from the husband’s side and the parental side—as well. This is absolutely a hyperbole as the men who are raising this issue will also be getting an equal portion of property for their wives—the same quota they spare for their sisters.

As such, the inheritance bill, should be modified, incorporating the daughters, to property as human rights, regardless of the age and marital status. The presumptions arguments that the relationship among the brother and sister would be spoilt after the introduction of such a law should be completely stopped. Are there be any brothers who do not like their sisters becoming better, happy and secured citizens?

If the situation of women has to be changed then the patriarchal-based laws and culture should modified or changed for better. Similarly, there should not be any more exploitation on grounds of sex. The rights of inheritance should be equally granted to daughters with equal education opportunities. Today, the situation of women is even more precarious as they have seen, learnt and heard more. As such, they have more expectations. With such aspirations for self of development women are getting more restless when they find themselves the most neglected lot.