Kathmandu: Nepal has never been a very favorable place for people living with disabilities. To begin with, the country woefully lacks infrastructure suitable for persons with disabilities, making it hard for them to move around and carry out day-to-day operations. They are subjected to discrimination, prejudices, and insensitive remarks.
The pandemic has only exacerbated the problems faced by this marginalized group in the country. With a lack of suitable infrastructure at home, hospitals and holding centers, this population group is one of the most significantly affected, according to a WHO report.
On Sunday, July 6, CBR Global Network’s chapter, CBR National Network Nepal, which works to improve lives of people with disabilities in Nepal, organized a virtual panel discussion series to zoom in on the plight of the people with disabilities during the pandemic. The first of the three-part series called Gyanmala focussed on the ‘Inclusion, opportunities and challenges for people with disabilities in the time of Covid pandemic and other outbreaks.’
At the start of the discussion, Nanda Raj Bhatta, director of Rehab Foundation, outlined the challenges faced by persons with disabilities in the Covid-10 pandemic. He pointed out the hardships faced by people with disabilities in isolation, quarantine, and holding centers. He also stressed on increased vulnerability of women with disabilities to violence and sexual violence during the time of the pandemic.
Bhatta pointed out that Nepal’s federal government doesn’t have a proper database recording the number of people with disabilities in the country.
“Due to a lack of an integrated information center, people with disabilities don’t get access to information regarding hospitals services and relief materials focussed on the group,” Bhatta said. “And also regarding the day-to-day essentials that people with disabilities need, like brailes and wheelchairs.”
The three-hour-long discussion was limited to talks on what ought to be done rather than what the stakeholders involved had achieved to cater to the needs of persons with disabilities in times of health emergencies and disasters.
There have been some legislative reforms when it comes to addressing the demands of the group, as Reena Chaudhary, associated with National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), pointed out at the event. Chaudhary is herself a person with disability, and she talked especially about how legislation in Nepal has “ensured that people with disabilities are rightly included in disaster risk management plans”.
“The Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act provides that the Authority should lay down a special plan and program for people with disabilities who are at disaster risk, and implement it,” she said.
However, Anil Pokharel, Chief Executive of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority conceded that NDRRMA lacks resources to cater to the needs of people with disabilities as mandated by the legislation. Pokharel acknowledged that identifying vulnerable groups is important for social protection and providing support, especially during disasters.
He informed that the Authority was currently working on introducing guidelines that would focus on persons with disabilities and their exclusive needs during disasters and health emergencies.
Raju Basnet, General Secretary of the National Federation of the Disabled-Nepal (NFDN), lamented that all of the Federation’s efforts towards ensuring rights of the group is centralized, focussing only on Kathmandu.
He informed that the Federation was in talks with the government to provide relief materials to persons with disabilities who are in need of them. However, he accepted that the Federation itself was limited to a coordinating role in such pursuits and progress was slow.
The three-hour-long discussion was limited to talks on what ought to be done rather than what the stakeholders involved had achieved to cater to the needs of persons with disabilities in times of health emergencies and disasters.
Questions raised by observers about possible solutions were dealt with vague references to legislation and policy and not to concrete plans that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority and National Federation of the Disabled-Nepal had in disposal.
In times of crises like the Covid-19 pandemic, where persons with disabilities face multiple challenges in treatments, transportation, education, and income generation, stakeholders involved in the discussion seemed complacent, if not totally irresponsible.
At one point in the discussion, one observes asked, “What are the solutions that the NDRRMA and the Federation envision to implement policies for the exclusive needs of persons with disabilities at the local level?”
The panelists responded by laying out a host of plans and no concrete solutions.
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