Disabled people part of inclusive society
Tomorrow, December 3, marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Countless numbers of Sri Lankans are suffering from both physical and mental disabilities – some temporary and some permanent. They have been made to endure their pain as Government inaction drags on regardless. The lethargy of an oversized Government in general, and insensitive officialdom in particular, are the problem.
Our INSIGHT report into this sluggishness (Page 10 today) explains the tardiness and apathy in implementing even Supreme Court orders and locally enacted legislation. At a time when Governments, Cabinets, Legislation and their conflicts are gripping the nation in the power struggle among politicians, the investigative report we publish shows how all this hot air often can mean very little to ordinary citizens and their day-to-day lives.
Way back in 2006, the then Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa gazetted, and a year later Parliament unanimously passed into the statute books, a comprehensive set of laws that gave guidelines to provide accessibility to persons with physical disability. This group includes many from the legacy of the recent armed conflict in Sri Lanka, soldiers and civilians alike.
With mushrooming new constructions in the cities, these not so new laws recognised the need for citizens with physical disabilities to have access to these high-rise buildings, be they apartment complexes or public housing, shopping malls or cinemas, hotels, or Government institutions like ministries and departments and banks.
These laws are universally accepted by the UN Convention for the Protection of the Rights of People with Disabilities, ratified by Sri Lanka’s Parliament in 2016. In economically advanced countries, such as Sri Lanka is always aspiring to be, a Government can be sued by a citizen for non-conformity with these laws. But in Sri Lanka, life takes its own pace, and time is not of the essence. The Social Services Ministry that has been tasked with the implementation of these laws, is also given step-motherly treatment and is, therefore, blissfully in the Land of Nod. Even a Supreme Court order made in 2011 – seven years ago, does not seem to wake up the ministry.
Activists are crying loudly for action. They want the lethargic bureaucracy to get a move on and see that these new constructions – and old ones, obey the laws of the land; that a Certificate of Conformity for new buildings must adhere to these rules. These activists have gone back to the Supreme Court on contempt charges accusing the Ministry of ignoring its fiat. And the Court has taken cognizance of these cries (see story on page 10).
Maybe the subject needs to be taken away from the Social Services Ministry and put under an active Minister, or someone who is himself, or herself physically disabled and feels the pain. But the Government itself is disabled these days and marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in such circumstances seems farcical. No longer should thousands of people be made to feel their “restricted ability” rather than “inability” requires them to languish on the fringes of society for the rest of their lives, and marginalised because the Government has been too slow in making them inclusive, active members of our society.