It was during the training on
strengthening Disabled Peoples Organizations (DPOs) that one of the groups
among the participants happened to discuss the measures to prevent the birth of
Children with Disabilities. The trainer immediately responded and said it was a
controversial topic as it may be against the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities
and it questions their dignified existence.
Preventing disability means the life of Persons with Disabilities is not
worth or they do not live a life of dignity at present. As the Persons with
Disability do not consider they are secondary or inferior to others, there is
no question of talking about a world without Persons with Disabilities. The
discussion went on. She added that it is alright talking about safe pregnancy
and child birth.
It
was hard to digest
the argument at any level, even emotionally. It is true that all the causes of
disability still remain to be unknown while there can be significant success in
minimizing the birth of Children with Disability by taking care of mental and
physical health care of childbearing women, proper post natal care, providing
nutritious food for the children and early detection of issues of disability of
the child etc. It is an indisputable fact that vast majority of the birth of
the children with disability could be avoided through appropriate
interventions.
To my mind there were several reasons
not to be an advocate of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with regard to
preventing the birth of Children with Disabilities. It is true that Persons
with Disabilities have the right to live just like any other human being and
any kind of discrimination towards them would be a grave violation of Human
Rights. However the fact remains that all persons with disability could not
enjoy the fullness of life not only due to the constraints of the world they
are born but also due to the issues of disability which can be either physical
or intellectual or the combination of both though disability is not a mere
issue of deformity.
Even millions of Persons without
Disability are deprived of basic necessities, a blatant violation of their
Right to life. The predicament of Persons with Disability is worse when they
belong to low income groups. It is obvious that poverty and disability remains
to be a vicious circle. The predicament of Persons with Mental Illness, Mental
Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, Visual Impairment and Multiple Disabilities is
worse than Peoples with Locomotor disability, Hearing Impairment, Low Vision and
Autism.
No one
can deny the fact that Persons with Disability needs more care and protection from
the vulnerabilities of the world. Millions of Persons with Disabilities
including children do not even know about their Rights. Persons with Mental
Illness or Mental Retardation may not even be able to articulate their Rights.
It is truism to say that others speak on behalf of them. Even the advocates of inclusive society would
agree that Persons with Disability struggles more than other vulnerable
sections of the society to enjoy the fullness of life in the world where
injustice, oppression, inequality and suffering prevail to be a great menace
for the development and prosperity of humanity.
The question remains, can the advocates
of the Rights Persons with Disabilities who are against taking preventive
measures to minimize the birth of Children with Disabilities ensure the
wellbeing of Persons with Disabilities of the future generations across the
world living in multiple deprivations? What else guarantee a safe, free and
prosperous life for millions of Persons with Disabilities living in bleak socio
economic conditions? There may be few
such people who enjoy better prospects due to their immense capacity to fight
the barriers, supportive socio economic conditions or the special care they got
from family, community and other organizations which are not a universal
reality. What about the millions of
others who are destined to struggle for their survival independently? Or on
what ground can we consider life with disability a right or an inevitable reality
such as gender, people with variety of
cognitive abilities, skills, interests , color and statures?
Is it not practical to prevent
disability for the known reasons and support the Persons who are born with
disabilities for unknown or who became victims of unanticipated disasters, to fulfill their Rights and live a
life of dignity and worth. Should we become so idealistic to argue that
preventing birth of Children with Disabilities is against the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities who are living among us? Wouldn’t it be better if medical
science could eliminate all the causes of disabilities and every human being is
born to this world at least without disabilities to add to his/her struggle for
survival?
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