The South Asia Regional Office (SARO) of Leonard Cheshire Disability works in four countries:
Bangladesh,
India,
Pakistan and
Sri Lanka. In these countries disabled persons constitute around two per cent of the population, or around 26 million people. A majority of these disabled persons, 22 million, reside in India. The population of disabled persons in India alone is larger than the entire population of a country like Australia.
All the countries, except Pakistan which has a Disabled Persons Ordinance, have their own Disability Act which lays down provisions for the welfare of disabled persons. However, only 2% of disabled persons have access to rehabilitation services and very few are aware of government entitlements that are guaranteed under the Act.
Women with disabilities, who constitute around 40 per cent of the total disabled population in the four countries, face further discrimination. Socio-cultural barriers ensure they are stigmatised and denied access to education, social life and even marriage. They are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse and in some cases subject to infanticide.
The direct costs of disability (cost of treatment; foregone income from disability) and indirect costs to others who provide care make disability a huge burden for family members or caregivers. This can result in the neglect and abandonment of disabled persons.
Leonard Cheshire Disability South Asia
To address the above-mentioned disability issues, SARO has established a strong field base with 16 community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes in the region. These programmes aim to build enabling communities by engaging educators, health personnel, families, community leaders and the business sector. Under these programmes disabled persons are also provided with training and financial support to ensure they are economically independent. 72 Self Help and Advocacy Groups (SH&AGs) of disabled persons and their family members have been formed so they can jointly lobby for their rights.
SARO also provides support to 25 Cheshire Homes and Day Centres providing services to persons with severe and multiple disabilities who are not cared for by their family members or who need specialised care.
In 2006, SARO initiated seven inclusive education programmes in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Our aim is to ensure that 2,240 disabled pre-school and primary school age children in these countries are able to access education in mainstream schools. This means working to create enabling environment as well as motivating parents and the community to ensure disabled children are in schools.
Through its range of programmes SARO has been able to reach more than 12,000 disabled persons and 200,000 people in the community over the last year. In the future, we will continue to strive to reach out to all of the 26 million disabled persons in the South Asia region.
Please visit
www.lcdsouthasia.org for more information on Leonard Cheshire Disability's work in South Asia.
