LAHORE:President Dr. Arif Alvi has stressed the need for concerted efforts to improve accessibility and inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the mainstream society so that they become equal, productive, and active citizens of society.
Talking to the participants in an Interactive Dialogue with PWDs at the Governor’s House here on Thursday, he said change in attitude towards persons with disabilities (PWDs) was vital to make them useful members of society.
First Lady Begum Samina Alvi also attended the event, which was held under the auspices of World Health Organisation (WHO) and Punjab Social Welfare Department. Provincial Minister Social Welfare Ghazanfar Abbas Cheena, Cahirman NADRA Tariq Malik, administrative secretaries of different provincial departments including Health, Social Welfare and Special Education, a large number of PWDs, representatives from various NGOs and others attended the interactive session.
The President said the media had a special role to play in eliminating discrimination, negative stereotypes, and social taboos against PWDs, besides enhancing their acceptance in society.
President Alvi underlined the need to enhance inclusion of PWDs in all sectors of life, besides providing them education and employment opportunities in the mainstream institutions. He said that persons with hearing, visual, physical and mental disabilities could be imparted education in regular schools provided they were given the right assistive technology and proper training was given to their teachers.
The President called for change in attitude at the individual and societal level towards PWDs to make them feel more welcome in society. He said globally the attitude towards PWDs were changing and they were increasingly being facilitated and included in all streams of life, whereas Pakistan lagged behind in terms of participation of PWDs in different activities.
He further said PWDs needed to be given jobs as per the government quota and PWDs with mild and severe forms of disability also needed to be accommodated as per their abilities and skills in different jobs.
The President said there was lack of correct data about the number of PWDs in Pakistan, however, as per different estimates they were more than 10% of our population. He added that Pakistan should not ignore this huge section of its population and make proportionate efforts to provide facilities to them and to develop their abilities to the fullest potential.
First Lady Begum Samina Arif Alvi, while talking to the participants, emphasised the need for making society more inclusive, providing assistive technology to PWDs, easing their registration with NADRA through one-window and online operations, fulfilling the job quota, and educating them in mainstream educational institutions.
Participants in the session shared their views on the problems faced by the PWDs in different walks of life and shared various suggestions on improving their inclusion and participation in society.
A large number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) took part in the dialogue and gave suggestions on overcoming the difficulties, faced by the PWDs. They proposed to redesign special education syllabi, introduce PWDs as teachers at schools, make leading PWDs part of decision making, reconstitution of Medical Assessment Boards and make the disability certification process more easy.