Facilitating Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Disaster Conditions is consider a very weak issue regarding Disaster Management Policies in Pakistan by the stake-holders due to lack of proper training & awareness in handling Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in disastrous conditions.
Heavy rains in Balochistan in the end of almost every June bring disaster not only in Balochistan, but also in many districts of Sindh on its Eastern border with devastating flash floods. Hill torrents originating from Balochistan enters Sindh through hills and floods vast areas in many districts causing huge disaster.
The connection between relief and early recovery initiatives of Persons with Disabilities after the disastrous circumstances has received adequate attention at all local, national and international level working in Pakistan. There has been a considerable instance in the recent years where the natural disasters and conflict situations have taken over the world's attention to the fall of human development in a specific nation.
It is essential to plan strategies to prepare the community and the population of the areas at risk to manage disasters which also facilitate Persons with Disabilities. Likewise, there is a need for the agencies to also equip themselves with Disabled friendly framework and plans to respond to the abrupt arising situations for Persons with Disabilities in disastrous conditions. The majorly of effected population in disaster and conflict suffer are Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) be it children, women, senior citizens and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
About 2.5 percent of the population of Pakistan has some form of disability (Pakistan Census 2005), around 7% to 8% (World Bank, 2005), and according to the survey reports by some district grass-root level DPO's & NGO's the percentage could exceed more than 9%. The reason behind the differences between these surveys is the shadow of ritual traditional & cultural bondage.
The challenges of disaster faced by Persons with Disabilities in Pakistan are not necessarily a part of having a disability, but instead often reflect lack of social attention, legal protection, understanding and support. Persons with disabilities often cannot obtain even the most basic information about the upcoming disaster. Thus they remain ignorant of basic facts about protecting themselves, their families, and their rights to define what they can do and do not want. (They may have little experience relating to and negotiating with support agency.) Persons with Disabilities may be denied the right to establish decision, or they may be forced into unwanted restrictions, where they may be treated more as fragile case or objects of burden rather than as an equal member of the community. As a group, Persons with disabilities fit the common pattern of structural risks in disaster due to high rates of poverty, illiteracy & lack of access to independent mobility in time of disaster. Persons with Disabilities in Pakistan are up to five times more likely than non-disabled persons to be victims of consequences' arising out from a disaster. Persons with intellectual and physical disabilities are the most vulnerable in this case due to need of escorted mobility and are sometimes left behind considering them as secondary priority.
A vast number of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) lose their abodes and are marooned in deep pond of water for several days by the relief force due to lack of Disabled friendly rescue equipment. Stories of their miseries and negligence of government machinery are widely reported in media. The unprecedented gushing flood from rivers badly shatters the flood protection network and the MNV/RBOD network breaches at several places bringing havoc to local communities. The floods expose the vulnerability of the drainage system .A careful review of the flood disaster reveals that the disaster was not merely a natural calamity but the part of credit also goes to bad engineering, non-disabled rescue equipment, poor flood management strategies and virtually collapsed institutional systems, knowing the climatic and topographic features of the area and the history of high floods, infrastructure building in the area required a more cautious disabled friendly approach but the policy wizards (both engineering and political) hardly give a thought to disaster before it really occurs and take its toll.
Persons with Disabilities in Pakistan are prey to multi-socio and cultural environment. There are dozens of interesting examples of the different ways in which societies have interpreted what constitutes a disability and what it means to be disabled. Understanding disability in a socio-cultural context is a critically important subject that deserves serious consideration before taking any initiative for the rescue from disaster of Person with Disabilities. It is equally important to establish some frameworks within which such Disabled rescue equipment can be included & practical rescue training to facilitate Persons with Disabilities better. The knowledge of traditional beliefs and practices towards disability is of vital importance before designing a rescue framework for Children and Persons with Disabilities in disastrous conditions.
Exclusion of Persons with Disabilities from decision-making in policy matters or designing a framework for disastrous conditions will never let the policy designers achieve the targets, Persons with Disabilities will always be the target of passive recipients of services Physical and attitudinal barriers to health services, Physical barriers to access may reflect simple lack of awareness and forethought or else the assumption that "it costs too much" to remove these barriers. Changing misperceptions and prejudiced attitudes, however, may be more difficult to address than removing physical barriers.
In fact, persons with disabilities constitute a significant stakeholder group that should have a place at the table whenever disaster relief programs are planned and decisions are made. Their involvement is the best assurance that programs will meet needs effectively. As the say goes around in the Disabled Community, 'Only the wearer knows where the shoe hurts' & 'Nothing about us without us'.