Special Education department forget to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Sindh government has forgotten to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities, supposed to be celebrated on December 33, 2011, Business Recorder learnt on Friday.

The whole world has attached great social importance to this International day of persons with disabilities and observed it with overwhelming ways but unfortunately Sindh government’s Special education department has ignored it and nothing was organized in this regard.

The purpose of this day was to enhance sympathies with people those are physically and mentally disable as they would feel that they are also very important people of the society.

It was witnessed that provincial government was sleeping deeply on 3^rd December (yesterday) and they did not even organize single activity in order to express significance of this internationally recognized day of person with disabilities.

“The provincial Special department which has been strengthened more after the devolution of Federal Ministry of Special education so that it was expected that international day would have been celebrated”, an official of department said.

In contrast to other special days, Special education has not organized a single seminar, no dinners, no fun-filled events, no rallies, no media campaign, and the internationally recognized the day has been passed like any other normal day.

In this connection, experts told Business Recorder persons with disabilities make up an estimated 15 percent of the world’s population. Almost one-fifth of estimated global total of persons living with disabilities, or between 110-190 million, encounter significant difficulties.

Furthermore, a quarter of the global population is directly affected by disability, as care-givers or family members, he added.

Persons with disabilities encounter many disadvantages in their societies and are often subjected to stigma and discrimination. They remain largely marginalized, disproportionately poorer, frequently unemployed and have higher rates of mortality, they added.