The plight of the disabled
Disability is a crucial problem in Bangladesh. Disability has long been considered a humanitarian or a charity issue rather than a development or human rights issue. But the trend has been changing nowadays. The changes have been taking place in the arenas of education, health, skill, and training. Disability is bringing to focus many of the burning social development issues like women's empowerment and gender roles, good governance, social security and safety nets.
The government of Bangladesh has set up "Protibondhi Unnayan Foundation" with a view to helping and accelerating the programs of NGOs by giving monetary assistance. The government has also introduced a system of allowance for the PWDs recently. But, compared to the gigantic problem, the assistance is too meager.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. There are a few hundred NGOs who are working for the PWDs and have extended their support to the government. These NGOs have either been formed and managed by the disabled persons themselves or have been working for the disabled persons. But the number of NGOs working in disability and development sector is trifling. However, it is the NGOs, rather than the government, that are taking the disability movement forward in Bangladesh. Most of these organizations are funded by foreign donors.
NFOWD (National Forum for Organisations Working for the Disabled) co-ordinates and financially helps some of these NGOs. However, only a handful of them are active. There is a severe lack of finance and knowledge about treatment and care of the disabled.
In addition to this, there is a lack of proper monitoring system to monitor the activities of these NGOs. Sometimes the same kinds of disability issues are addressed differently by different organizations. There is no similarity in their approaches. All of these NGOs are working separately.
Some of these organizations are supporting the government by training the teachers of the primary schools on disability issues so that they are able to address the disabled children in the classroom. It is indeed a very good approach. But, doing the activities without the knowledge of the government has no effect on the system as a whole.
As NFOWD is coordinating the activities of some of these NGOs and is working as a national NGO, the government can strengthen this monitoring activity working in cooperation with NFOWD. It will help them identify what kinds of disability programs already exist, how far they have succeeded, and then they can try and replicate their successful programs.
Monitoring generally refers to the routine tracking of the project's ongoing activities, achievements and constraints. It helps to ensure that activities are carried out as planned. It answers the questions: What are we doing? How many people are trained or counseled on disability? How many PWDs have been given therapy? etc.
Evaluation generally refers to the assessment of program/project implementation and its success in obtaining pre-determined project goals/objectives. It answers the questions: What have we achieved and how? What have we not achieved and why?
To do a proper monitoring, a monitoring tool or indicator should be developed .
An indicator is a quantitative or qualitative factor or variable that provides a simple and reliable basis for assessing achievement, change or performance. It is a unit of information measured over time that can help show changes in a specific condition.
Moreover, before an NGO starts working in a particular district or area, proper attention should be given to find out the nature of disabilities in that area so that the disability issues can be addressed accordingly.
For example, if in a particular area the malnutrition of the mother during her pregnancy and poor home delivery system lead to mental disability of the child, then the program can put emphasis on creating awareness among the women and community regarding pregnancy related complications.
In this way, attention can be given to prevention rather than cure, which in turn will reduce the rate of disability among children. The government can also intervene in this sector by conducting researches or studies with the technical help of some national or international NGOs.
However, I believe we can pat our backs for having been able to bring the PWDs out of their shells as they have become more aware of their rights and issues. Needless to say, the credit goes first to the NGOs, who even though they are working in a scattered way, but still are able to bring these people out of their shells. These NGOs have a very positive effect on the attitudes of people towards the disability issues, and especially on PWDs.
Recently, the government of Bangladesh has also come up with many disability programs, providing a regular allowance to PWDs being one of them. But value will be added to all of these programs if proper monitoring and evaluation are done, unified approach of addressing the disability issues is followed, mainstreaming of the different disability activities based on their successes is done, and research to find the reason behind the disability is conducted.