There are laws, policies, charters and strategies to safeguard disabled persons and there should be increased coordination among the public and private organisations to implement theses.
Also an emphasis should be given to ensure employment of disabled persons in informal sector.
Speakers made these remarks at a roundtable styled ‘Skill development training and inclusive employment for persons with disabilities’ organised jointly by ADD International Bangladesh and Prothom Alo on Wednesday.
The speakers also emphasised the need for changing existing negative mentality about the persons with disability.
Speaking as chief guest, Rashed Khan Menon, chairman of parliamentary standing committee on social welfare ministry, said, “There is no lack of legal frameworks in safeguarding the persons with disabilities but we are lagging behind in capacity building and ensuring their employment. Many initiatives of government are not being effective. An announcement was made to form a sign language institute for hearing and speech impaired persons but is yet to be implemented. New technologies are being introduced for visually impaired persons but we are failing to create skilled persons. Also, the government and private sectors should work in unison regarding the statistical discrepancies relating to the persons with disabilities.”
Md Johor Ali, member of National Skills Development Authority of Prime Minister’s Office, said the authorities are now training persons with disabilities with some specific skills including sewing. He suggested that the disabled persons can be trained in technology so that they can earn from home.
Small & Medium Enterprise Foundation’s general manager Farzana Khan said there are no separate initiatives for the disabled persons right now but the stall they set up in the national fair is attracting a good number of customers.
She said separate stress management course and e-commerce related training can be arranged for the persons with disabilities if they are interested.
Action on Disability and Development (ADD) International Bangladesh’s director (resource system and culture) Md Shafiqul Islam suggested coming out of conventional thinking, strengthening the organisations of disabled people and government-level committees that work for disabled persons.
ADD is a right based development international organisation.
Tawhida Jahan, Dhaka University’s assistant professor of Communication Disorder department advocated for putting emphasis on technical education for the disabled persons who cannot access to higher education.
British high commission in Dhaka’s social development adviser Tahera Jabeen said making any effective plan to improve the quality of life of the disabled persons is impossible if there are no accurate statistics of disabled people.
ADD International’s Bangladesh programme lead Ghulam Faruq Hamim shared the organisation’s experience about a project on employment of disabled persons and drew some recommendations. Under the project on skill development and inclusive employment, 1192 disabled persons from 49 districts were employed after being trained. The training was provided with assistance of different orgnaisations including BRAC.
He said over 66 per cent of disabled person between 15 to 64 years are not engaged with any sort of earning.
Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID) executive director Khandakar Jahurul Alam expressed ire that the social welfare ministry is focused too much on initiatives such as disability allowance and fostering orphans. In this year’s primary teacher recruitment examination, a total of 200 people passed written examination but none of them finally got the job. He said even writ had to be filed over this issue.
Bangladesh Society for the Change and Advocacy Nexus (B-SCAN) general secretary Salma Mahbub said the disabled persons who are employed can’t hold the jobs due to various constraints. She said RMG industries came forward slightly to employ persons with disabilities but other sectors are not.
Rajanigandha Unnayan Sangstha Rajshahi’s president Asaduzzaman Chowdhury said nothing is impossible for disabled persons if they get adequate opportunity.
Sightsavers Bangladesh’s project manager Utpal Mallick and UCEP Bangladesh’s manager Mahmud Hasan Talukder suggested for ‘skill needs mapping’ to ensure employment.
Bangladesh Business Disability Network’s CEO Murteza Khan said disabled persons cannot be given long term training due to accessibility constraints and several other factors.
Brac’s skill development programme’s manager S Mahzuz Ali urged the government to come forward to ensure employment for the disabled persons in the informal sectors.
CDD’s development manager Sajjad Kabir said the disabled persons are excluded from getting jobs as they don’t have experience required.
He asked how the disabled persons get the experience since they are deprived of education and everything.
He suggested introducing in-home education system for the persons with disabilities. Prothom Alo’s associate editor Abdul Quayum delivered the welcome speech while assistant editor Firoz Choudhury moderated the event.