Poverty and Discrimination among Disabled
Disability: What is it?
When a person's physical or mental condition keeps him or her from functioning as most people do.
A disability can be physical (such as paralysis, loss of limb, deafness), mental (such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder) or intellectual (such as a learning disability). Some people are born disabled; others become disabled as a result of an accident or disease. Disabilities range from moderate to significant and can be temporary or permanent. With the help of a supportive community, good education and vocational opportunities, disabled persons can make progress.
Here are some statistics:
- 650 million people in the world are disabled, according to the World Health Organization.
- 80% of disabled people live in developing countries.
- 20% of the world’s poorest people are disabled, and tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most disadvantaged.
- 1 in every 10 children around the world copes with a disability.
- Only 2–3% of disabled children in poor countries go to school.
These numbers are gravely underestimated because disabled people are typically shunned, isolated and stigmatized by their community, so they are often left out of census reports. Families hide disabled children and exclude them from family and community activities.
Relationship between Disability and Poverty:
Disability leads to poverty
When persons with a disability are kept from attending school or finding work, they tend to be the poorest among the poor because they don't acquire any skills.
Many people in developing countries think that children with disabilities can't learn or develop skills, so not much is expected from them. In turn, they don't contribute to their communities but are considered to be a burden.
But poverty contributes to disability
Poor people are at greater risk of becoming disabled. They also have fewer chances to overcome their disabilities. This increases the odds that they and their families will remain poor.
Children can be born disabled …Some children are born disabled because their mothers didn't receive prenatal care or had a hard time giving birth. Or they are born disabled for no clear reason.
Or become disabled …Children can become disabled during childhood if they are malnourished, exposed to preventable childhood diseases such as polio, or have an accident.
Countries coming out of war have many physically disabled people who got injured during conflict. If these people, especially men, suddenly find themselves unable to work and provide for their families, their welfare will suffer and they may become poorer. Uganda is one of the countries that have been experiencing wars since independence and in some regions of the country for the last 20 years, which led to many physically disabled persons.
People living in areas prone to conflict or natural hazards (such as hurricanes and droughts) disproportionally suffer from post-traumatic-stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
Chronic poverty and disability in Uganda are inextricably linked. Despite impressive economic gains made by the country over the years, current evidence suggests that; over 2.4 million disabled people remain poor, Disability feeds on poverty, and poverty on disability. Because of poverty many people become disabled.
Such people have very limited access to health care and facilities (including immunisation); they have very rudimentary feeding and nutrition; they are exposed to a number of disabling conditions, etc. As a consequence chronically poor people are more likely to become disabled. On the other hand, many disabled people lack education and skills training. Hence they cannot easily access employment. The physically demanding nature of unskilled labour (a hallmark of
Uganda’s economies) also makes it difficult for disabled people to be involved in labour intensive activities. This situation is made worse by outright social exclusion of disabled people that constrains disabled people’s participation in the job market.
NB. It is important to note that:
· Disabled people are facing various forms of exclusion, isolation and neglect and this condemns them to perpetual (chronic) poverty.
· Different categories of disabled people have different needs and are differently affected by poverty.
· Existing poverty-focused policies and programmes, in their present form, are inadequate in addressing the needs of disabled people with respect to poverty eradication.
Further, evidence suggests that current policies and programmes aimed at poverty eradication in the country are inadequate in addressing matters of chronic poverty among people with disabilities. In the first place the need for disabled people to “survive within structures that assume that people are able-bodied”. Measures of income poverty failed to take disability into account and hence underestimated the income people with disabilities need to meet basic needs.
Secondly, it is discrimination, rather than disability itself, which is at the heart of the exclusion experienced by disabled people thereby leading to a greater risk of poverty. There is need to better understand the intricate relationships between chronic poverty and disability.
“Dr. Amartya Sen pointed out in his keynote address at the World Bank’s conference on disability; the poverty line for disabled people should take into account the extra expenses they incur in exercising what purchasing power they do have. A study in the United Kingdom found that the poverty rate for disabled people was 23.1 percent compared to 17.9 percent for non-disabled people, but when extra expenses associated with being disabled were considered, the poverty rate for people with disabilities shot up to 47.4 percent.” This should give you a picture of what happens in developing countries. Life is indeed very expensive for a disabled person.
Incorporating people with disability into society
People with disabilities should be helped to become productive members of society because this will improve the welfare and well-being of the entire community. Sometimes solutions are relatively simple, such as providing reading glasses to children, giving wheelchairs to those in need or constructing wheelchair accessible buildings.
If people with disabilities are not supported to find work or create their own, it will make them to be the poorest among the poor and hence a failure of the Millennium Development Goals.
Barriers to the employment of Persons with disabilities
It is obvious that persons with disabilities are facing more difficulties in employment than non-disabled people. Major difficulties include:
1. The overall employment situation is critical. The registered unemployment rate for people living in urban areas is over 40%. Each year, there are about 600,000 graduates need jobs, but the working posts provided by the government and private sector are only 10,000. Such a situation is expected to last for many years. Even the chance for non-disabled, getting employed is a difficult thing. So, employment for persons with disabilities who are even characterized by high level illiteracy rates faces considerable pressure.
2. Social awareness for the employment of persons with disabilities is extremely low. Prejudice and discrimination is so much. Many employers do not understand and do not support the employment for Persons with disabilities. Many people do not know what persons with disabilities can do. So they cannot provide working posts for persons with disabilities or they are worrying of unnecessary troubles. There is a policy for employing 10% persons with disabilities of the total company employees and a company gets a tax waver of 15%. Even though, many employers prefer to pay more tax rather than to employ persons with disabilities.
3. There are more professional requirements for employees. With the adjustment of industrial structure in the country and in the environment of global economy, enterprises require their employees to be high educated and to have multiple skills. Since the average educational level of persons with disabilities is much lower, they are more difficult to find their position in high-tech oriented enterprises.
4. There are pressures from friends and relatives. Traditionally, in peoples’ mind, persons with disabilities certainly should stay at home and should be taken care of by their family members. If they go out to earn their own living, especially if they do some physical works, their family members will feel the pressure from their friends and relatives.
5. Persons with disabilities themselves lack clear ideas about their own ability. Some of them have psychological obstacles such as the fear of difficulties and discrimination. As a result, they are reluctant to go out to the society and face challenges. Their anticipation for the future is low. Also, many persons with disabilities have a sense of dependency resulting from the care and sympathy from the families. They need to be encouraged to proactively enhance their working skills.
For persons with disabilities in Uganda, entrepreneurship is a new working area. In the past years, vocational training for Persons with disabilities are mainly focused on some basic skills, such as, handicraft training for the deaf, and training in tailoring and carpentry for persons with physical disabilities.
Through many years of practice, we have accumulated some experience in these areas. However, the livelihood for persons with disabilities is still a problem. The reality of low anticipation for persons with disabilities by families and the society is not effectively changed.
Seeking your Support Video
