ISLAMABAD: The UNDP Pakistan National Human Development Report on Inequality revealed that Pakistan has a poor track record of protecting and empowering millions of Pakistanis having different form of disability.
According to the latest report of the UNDP, the recently-released UNDP Pakistan National Human Development Report 2020 explores Pakistan's economic and social inequalities.
It highlights that although millions of Pakistanis have some form of disability, the country has a poor track record of protecting and empowering these groups. The global population of persons with disabilities is estimated to be more than one billion, approximately, 15 percent of the total world population (World Report on Disability, 2011).
Some 80 percent of all persons with disabilities live in the Global South, notes the WHO and the World Bank Group fact sheet, 2018. Applying the 15 percent prevalence rate to Pakistan with its current population of over 207 million, at least, 31 million people with disabilities probably live in this country.
However, due to social stigmas leading to disabilities being widely under-reported, most of these individuals remain among the unseen, unheard and uncounted population of Pakistan. Policy approaches to disability in Pakistan have historically focused on rehabilitation, welfare handouts, and charity.
This began changing after the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) became operational in 2008 with the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The CRPD offers a blueprint for a rights-based approach for mainstreaming persons with disabilities.
Pakistan ratified the treaty in 2011 but progress around building an inclusive society has been slow. Legislation has still not been aligned with the social model of disability, which outlines that the barriers individuals face are not a result of their impairments, but are created by society, attitudes, and the physical environment.
The current policy framework around disability neglects the critical issue of ensuring accessibility and accommodations to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities. The increasing global commitment to mainstreaming persons with disabilities into development, and a strong disability rights movement has led to encouraging progress on inclusion and access around the world.
But in Pakistan, the country's size and scale and the difficulties in securing reliable data given the continued widespread stigma and discrimination of persons with disabilities, means that we are still far from fulfilling our commitments to the UNCRPD and providing persons with disabilities with the opportunities they need to flourish.
Despite these impediments, the Government of Pakistan is making efforts to help document people with disabilities. A specific module on disability was added to the PSLM district level survey, to ensure better reporting of disability. However, despite these efforts, there is massive underreporting of disability data.
While the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) says 31 million people experience disabilities, NADRA records suggest there are only 371,000 individuals with disabilities in Pakistan. This may be due to the grave stigmatisation of people with disabilities in the country, making them hesitant to register their disabilities.
In this context, a good step could be to incentivise the registration of disabilities such as through providing scholarships, free check-ups, occasional support, enhanced social protection plans, and more. Registration of people with disabilities will push institutions to make special arrangements for them, including addressing issues of accessibility and special healthcare facilities.
This reporting will therefore, serve as an important step to identify, address, and mitigate inequality in Pakistan for people with disabilities. To stop perpetuating inequality and to develop an inclusive and rights-based society for all, policy makers and leaders must bring about more systemic and institutional changes at all levels of decision making.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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