Disability and living conditions
This article, I continue to unpack the provisions of the National Disability Policy which was launched by President Mnangagwa on June 9, 2021.
THE Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, led by the Minister, Professor Paul Mavima oversees the implementation of the National Disability Policy, thus moving the provisions of the policy from paper to the real world to make a positive difference in the lives of persons with disabilities and their families.
The focus of this article is on Section 3.3 (Living Conditions), whose tenets I outline and discuss below.
3.3 Living Conditions
3.3.1 Opportunities must be created for persons with disabilities, so that they can have a chance to freely choose the places where they want to live, and with whom they want to live.
3.3.2 Persons with disabilities must not be forced to live in particular living arrangements including in institutions.
3.3.3 Plans for deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities and the development of community based services to ensure the return of persons with disabilities to the community in conditions which do not leave them destitute and which ensure support to them, must be adopted.
3.3.4 Families that live with persons with disabilities should not persecute, stigmatise and discriminate against their own family members with disabilities nor conceal, neglect and segregate them.
3.3.5Landlords should not discriminate against tenants with disabilities or tenants with family members with disabilities including children with disabilities.
3.3.6Families and caregivers of persons with disabilities must not be discriminated against on the basis of disability of their family members or by association.
3.3.7 Families must be supported in relation to the establishment and sustenance of regular respite care within communities.
3.3.8 Persons with disabilities must have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community support services, including personal assistance that is necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation and segregation from the community.
3.3.9 A minimum of 15 percent of houses or residential land on each public housing programme must be allocated to persons with disabilities or parents or guardians of children with disabilities at reduced cost.
3.3.10 Persons with disabilities who are allocated residential land must be given support in relation to the construction of houses.
3.3.11 All public housing and social amenities programs must uphold the principle of universal design as defined in the National Disability Policy.
3.3.12 Deceiving persons with disabilities by taking their funds under the guise of assisting them to rent or purchase residential property is prohibited.
3.3.13 Ensure that persons with disabilities have equitable access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) – water points must be accessible and closer to where persons with
disabilities live.
3.3.14 Strengthen the capacity of local communities to establish and improve inclusive WASH management systems, including water harvesting.
3.3.15 All appropriate and effective measures must be taken, to ensure the equal right of persons with disabilities to own or to inherit property and to eliminate provisions and practices which restrict or deny this right to persons with disabilities.
3.3.16 Persons with disabilities shall not arbitrarily be deprived of their property.
3.3.17 On an equal basis, community services and facilities for the general population must be available and accessible to persons with disabilities and they should also be responsive to the needs of persons with disabilities.
3.3.18 Statistics relating to land and housing units that would have been allocated to persons with disabilities must be submitted to the Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in November of each year.
So what does all this mean?
The provisions of Section 3.3 of the National Disability Policy (Living Conditions) mean that the practice of hating persons with disabilities which results in some families just “throwing” their family members with disabilities in residential institutions is inappropriate. For example, some parents think that their children with disabilities are “useless” or that they are a “burden” on the basis of disability, so they “dump” them in residential care homes and forget about them.
But research has indicated that children who grow up in children’s homes often experience developmental delays, behavioural problems, anger issues, have a hard time connecting and forming healthy relationships with others, they lack life skills, and they experience difficulties with coping and regulating emotions and interacting with others.
We therefore need to stop “manufacturing” social problems by “throwing” our children with disabilities in institutions. We need to realise that just like children without disabilities, children with disabilities will also grow into adulthood, enter the world of work, get married and have their own children who need their support, hence their own healthy development in the first place, is of utmost importance.
The policy is also directing landlords to stop discriminating against existing or future tenants with disabilities or families with persons with disabilities including children with disabilities. For example, research undertaken in Zimbabwe has indicated that when a tenant arrives to take occupancy with a family member with disability, the family is immediately refunded the rental/deposit that they may have paid, on the basis that their family consists of a person with disability, who is also going to be living at the house with them.
Such a scenario puts the family in great difficulty as they are forced to begin to look for alternative accommodation in places where they may also not be wanted by other landlords, because of their family member with disability.
Even in instances where the family with a person with disability is accommodated, when anything goes wrong at the house, it is the person with disability that is blamed by the landlord.
For example, when something is stolen at the house, blame is automatically assigned to the deaf person who may struggle to defend him or herself due to language barriers, when the toilet is soiled, blame is also arbitrarily put on the blind person.
The policy is also highlighting the fact that the Government of Zimbabwe is committed to upholding the right of persons with disabilities to own property, including in instances where they may have inherited such property.
This provision is very important because situations have arisen where persons with disabilities including children with disabilities are thrown out of the houses that they may have inherited from their parents by extended family members who then selfishly move into the properties — thus rendering the legitimate beneficiaries with disabilities destitute.
Through the National Disability Policy (2021), the Government of Zimbabwe is calling for an end to persecution, stigmatisation, discrimination, neglect and segregation of persons with disabilities within families and communities and promoting their right to own or to inherit property and to have access to associated community services and facilities.
The Government of Zimbabwe is also providing support in relation to the establishment and sustenance of regular respite care within communities, thus offering the much-needed support to families with persons with disabilities.
Note: Universal Design means the design of products, environments, programs and services, making it possible for them to be used by all people (including persons with disabilities), to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialised design.