The voices of disabled children and young people are not usually listened to by society and policy makers. A majority of them continue to remain in the shadow of society without having access to education, as well as being denied their basic rights.

“We do not want to hide our physical weaknesses out of shame, because of social pressure, but instead, we challenge members of society that consider us a burden,” said Jamuna Acharya member of ‘Listen To Us’, at the press conference here on Monday.

‘Listen To Us’ group, comprising of 22 disabled children and young people from the country’s 16 districts, have been spreading the importance of education to children with disabilities for the past two years.

They have presently gathered in the city to voice their concerns in an upcoming national conference scheduled to be held on May 24-25. The conference will be jointly organised by Save The Children UK, the ministry of women, children and social welfare and the National Federation of Disabled.

The aim of ‘Listen To Us’ is to expand programmes in favour of young disabled people throughout the country, covering the broad band estimated figure of 240 thousand persons with these conditions. Their focus is on promoting primary-level education. “We demand that all disabled children be given at least free primary-level education,” said Haridatta Sapkota.

However, their main grievance dwells on the current school examination system in Nepal, which does not consider disabled students at all. “We should be given extra time during examinations due to our physical shortcomings,” said Sushila Dhakal.

Amongst others, deaf participants at the programme, through an interpreter, pointed out that not all the teachers in their schools can communicate in sign language. Further to this, teachers in special schools for the deaf and dumb do not always follow the rules and regulations, nor do they set a proper school hour schedule.

Parents of the disabled hesitate to send their disabled children to school fearing that they will be mocked. However, Kritika Acharya sent her visually impaired daughter Menaka Acharya to school only after her child’s insistence.

“I did not feel that I had to send my visually impaired daughter to school. When her friends started making fun at her for not going to school, she insisted on being admitted. Initially, she had to face a lot of hurdles,” she said.