Differently-abled seek role in CA

Kathmandu, June 10 :

Differently-abled people have demanded their participation in the constituent assembly and re-structuring of the State mechanism.

The plans and policies for the differently-abled people, launched by the governments till now, didn’t adopt right-based approach but were welfare-based.

The new government should consider active participation of the differently abled people and include them in the process of re-structuring of the state mechanism, said Birendra Raj Pokharel, president of National Federation of the Disabled-Nepal (NFDN), said. The conflict in the country has rendered many people disabled and they have not been rehabilitated. Both the government and the Maoists should be made aware of the concerns of the disabled people and they should be represented in the peace talks, he said.

“Our concerns are yet to take shape in the parliamentary debate,” he said, adding that the NFDN has started campaigning to bring to light the concerns of the disabled people before the administration.

The concept has been designed in such a way whereby they can join the national mainstream after their rights are established and lead a respectable life, he said. In this connection, the NFDN organised a weeklong signature campaign in different parts of Kathmandu from June 1 to 7 to press the government for respectable participation of the disabled people in the state mechanism and submitted it to Deputy Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on June 7, said Ram Prasad Dhungana, the general secretary of NFDN.

In the past years, the authorities in the decision-making level were indifferent to the issues of the disabled people and just gave them assurances, he said.

Even the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper does not address issues related with the disabled, who are the worst hit by poverty. They do not have access to many facilities, he said.