December Third – International Day of Persons With Disabilities

It was my childhood dream to run a great business employing hundreds of disabled people alone, providing them all the comfort and security they need in their life, but to date, it’s remaining a distant dream that all my ventures ended up as a one-man show lacking resources and I’m still craving to enact that dream. Thank God, we are all blessed with all organs, capabilities and senses, but still we find ourselves struggling to find a living! How about the life of those who are impaired then? Denial of basic rights, freedom of expression and opinion, exclusion from society, negative attitudes; oh Jesus, life is a hell for them that they end up cursing their fate.

The relationship between poverty and disability is very strong that they both go hand on hand with each other extending in both directions. Poverty causes disability through malnutrition, hazardous living conditions and poor health care. On the other way round, disability can cause poverty by preventing the full participation of disabled people in the economic and social life of the community, especially if proper support and accommodation are not available. World Bank estimates roughly about 10-12% of world’s population, i.e., about 650 million people, experiencing disabilities of various types and degrees, anything from learning impairment to physically handicapped. Disability of an individual affects not just the individual alone but the entire family that the day-to-day life of about 25% of the world’s population is affected by disability. Furthermore, the global handicapped population is increasing as a result of growth in population, advancement of medical sciences that preserve and prolong life, malnutrition, chronic conditions, HIV/AIDS, road injuries, land mines, etc., etc.

Today it’s December 3^rd, International Day of Persons With Disabilities. The United Nations committed to promote the full participation of disabled people in social life and development as well as prevention and rehabilitation measures observes December 3^rd of every year as “The International Day of Persons With Disabilities” and this year with the theme “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Dignity and Justice for all of us.” In fact, 80% of the world’s disabled people live in low-income countries that the majority of them are poor and cannot access basic services including rehabilitation facilities that neither UN nor governmental organizations can alone change the lives of the persons with disabilities in the poor/developing countries, but the communities of those countries should come up with the helping hand with different welfare measures. Though I’m unable to execute my supporting thoughts for the disabled and unsuccessful in employing a disabled contributing to such welfare measures until this International Disabled Day, will this blog post be an eye opener for some entrepreneur in the poor/developing countries to alleviate poverty of at least one disabled?

Update: Interestingly, I came across one such organization on the web, an Indian spices manufacturer, employing 200 disabled persons enabling them to lead a honorable living. Hats off to this idea of employing the handicapped. As I said earlier, it has to come up from one’s mind or should be the thought of a society. Are there any award givers out there to appreciate this gesture? Anyone who knows similar gestures?

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