Women with 'disabilities':
Battling to ensure rights
SACHITRA Mahendra
We often think it is virtuous to give alms to them. We entertain
pitiful feelings for them. We take them in as a different kind of
species. People with disabilities - creatures dwindled down before us
'with abilities'.
N G Kamalawathi occupied at her AKASA office at Anuradhapura
Pictures by
Udara Madushanka Dharmasena |
Have we ever cared to accept them as normal human beings? Have we,
actually? For most of us the answer is apparently negative.
Fortunately, it stirred the roundtable talk held at Waters Edge, the
other day. Artistes, both government and non-Government organizations
and many others both with abilities and disabilities, both foreign and
local, had something to say.
AKASA - literally refers to the unlimited sky - Association of Women
with Disabilities, had obvious grounds to organize this roundtable. Of
all those with disabilities, AKASA has identified, women are in a grave
position for being poor, illiterate or semi literate and being the
vulnerable sex. One woman with a physical difficulty shared her
experience of being mistreated ever since childhood.
"I learned the alphabet only at 16. Nobody wanted me to do anything.
They had just left me behind."
Thanuja Nawaratne, a lawyer born with a physical disability, however
wanted to give the lie. "True, it is worse to be born as a woman with a
disability in a remote area, but still if you have the right kind of
attitude, you can tear across every hurdle. I was born with physical
disabilities, and today, I am a lawyer despite everything that stood in
my way."
AKASA's founder president N G Kamalawathi, being herself physically
disabled, shared Thanuja's voice. "Luckily my parents and siblings never
treated me as a disabled child. Like any child I schooled and did a job
too.
But every woman with disabilities doesn't enjoy that privilege. They
suffer because of others' attitudes."
Filmmaker Jackson Anthony toyed with the idea that people with
disabilities should be recognized as 'differently abled people', though
some did not agree with him.
"We are not differently abled. We have no reason to pass up that we
are disabled. But it does not mean that we cannot contribute to the
society. I may be someone with a disability and you may not have that
disability, yet we all can think and we may have same talents. I may
require a supporting device to write and you may not. And yet people
talk about what we have written, not how we have written!"
Anthony pointed out the need for a change in attitudes too. A number
of other artistes such as Bandara Eheliyagoda, Lucien Bulathsinhala and
Kularatne Ariyawansa opined that many creative works should come out for
the sake of people with disabilities.
"We must create more songs and other creative media to ensure the
equal position of people with disabilities." Lucien Bulathsinhala said.
At AKASA headquarters based in Anuradhapura, a city where the poorest
are settled in, donors with pitiful hearts are a rare scene.
Kamalawathi makes sure every woman with physical disabilities is
occupied in their own capacity. Unlike many organizations for disabled,
Kamalawathi's organization uses funds mostly to create more
income-generating programs.
"Once when I conducted an awareness program, one particular group of
people with disabilities asked for money to come to the venue. I
rejected it flat out. If I gave them money, then I naturally accept the
fact that they are dependent. No they can stand on their own. But most
of them always think of banking on others. This has made people with
abilities to look at them with a sympathetic eye."
Kamalawathi works hard to wash off this attitude. It yields results,
but slowly. In Sri Lanka, she went on to say, not only the attitude but
the facilities for people with disabilities should be changed too.
If you have an issue with transport, you are still directed to social
services ministry and not the transport ministry. They go through this
kind of encounters in any sector.
Another delegate tabled the question on non-issuance of driver's
license to people with hearing disabilities.
"You drive with all the shutters closed with earphones in both ears.
You drive only with signs outside. So do you make use of your hearing
ability? In rural areas so many people with hearing disabilities drive
without license but not a single accident has been reported."
"It is no wonder", one delegate stood up to say, "that people with
one physical disability enjoy improved ability on other faculties.
If you are blind, your hearing faculty is very much improved more
than others. It is not a miracle, but they naturally learn to make the
best use of their remaining faculties."
Kamalawathi shared one of her experiences with foreign volunteers
working in Sri Lanka.
"One Swiss volunteer told me that what we have in Sri Lanka is what
they had 200 years ago. I felt the same thing when I visited some
foreign countries like UK and Switzerland. Even in trains and buses,
their foothold is as same as the platform.
Here we can't use the transport properly. Some places do not provide
access for people with disabilities. The Transport Minister has given a
pledge that they will provide mobility-friendly service in the near
future. I am happy to hear that."
Towards the end of the roundtable talk, everybody agreed on one
thing: people with disabilities are neither differently abled nor less
abled. But still they have a difference. They need props to carry out
what a normal individual do without hassle. Some need specs to see, and
some need not; some need hearing aids to hear, and some need not; some
need crutches to walk, and some need not - yet their contribution to the
society remains equal.
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