Six years after Hasina's announcement, Bangladesh fails to form department for people with disabilities

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had ordered the transformation of the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons into a department six years ago, but no progress has been made.

Leaders of organisations working on the rights of people with disabilities believe that establishing a department will be a big step towards guaranteeing their rights.

They have pointed to a lack of coordination. People with disabilities need to turn to services and assistance centres run by the foundation for medical and other needs, but they have to go to other agencies for identification cards and allowances.

This lack of coordination has made the work to ensure services for people with disabilities tiresome and confusing, which discourage them to claim their rights.

Establishment of a department will centralise all these services and make the process hassle-free, the leaders say.

Meanwhile, the staffers providing treatment, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and counselling at service and other assistance centres for people with disabilities soon leave their employment as the jobs are not permanent.

Transforming the foundation into a department will also end this problem with provisions of permanent jobs and other facilities for the employees.

The public administration ministry sent a proposal to the social welfare ministry on the transformation in 2010.

Hasina had formally announced that the government would begin working on it in April 2014, going as far as unveiling a nameplate at the time.

The patrons of the foundation in their second meeting chaired by Hasina agreed to go ahead with the transformation.

A decade after the proposal was sent, the social welfare ministry says the work for the transformation has “made much headway”.

Imam Uddin, the convener of Bangladesh Disabled Person Unity Council, firmly believes that the change will bring a lot of facilities to persons with disabilities.

“It will generate employment opportunities for us. A lot of manpower will be needed once the work begins in every district and Upazila. We will be prioritised there,” he told bdnews24.com.

“A separate budget will be made for the development of persons with disabilities. The government does not do this for us. Responsibility and accountability will be established (after the establishment of a department),” he said.

He alleged “some people” in the foundation were against the transformation because they think about their own benefit only. “They are using us as business products. They are bringing in money from different NGOs for their benefit, but it is not being used for our development.”

“Once it's made a department, the government will take its reins. We will get all the facilities from the same place,” he said.

The Department of Social Services has 51 areas to work on, which makes it difficult for the department to pay special attention to people with disabilities, pointed out Ali Hossain, the convener of a group of graduate job seekers who are visually impaired.

“There are separate ministries for marginalised people and women. There is one for the Chittagong Hill Tracts. But no ministry or department for persons with disabilities exists,” he said.

“We face irregularities in education and other sectors. If there were a department, it would work only for us. Our rights would have been fully guaranteed and we could have used it as a higher authority,” Ali said.

“The way the Department of Social Services work, it does not secure our rights at all. They make appointments in exchange for bribes and appoint people who don’t have any disability,” he alleged.

Ali Hossain is positive that a department will open up avenues of employment.

“A department requires at least 7,000 employees. If this is done, the persons with disabilities lagging behind others will become human resources,” he said.

He said Hasina ordered officials to work on the rights of people with disabilities when they went to meet her in October 2019. “But nothing has been done.”

“She spoke about our employment through a special method after the abolishment of our quota. Nothing has become of that either,” he added.

Salma Mahbub, general secretary of Protibondhi Nagorik Sangathaner Parishad or PNSP, believes that people with disabilities will get special attention if the foundation turns into a department.

The social welfare ministry look after the issues of people with disabilities besides other matters although the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stipulates the establishment of a separate department for them, Salma said.

“The foundation isn’t capable of doing the work (of a separate department). It doesn’t have enough people with disabilities in its workforce. People with disabilities are not included in the making of policies there,” she said.

Md Anisuzzaman, the managing director of the National Foundation for the Development of the Disabled Persons, acknowledged it should be made a fully fledged department as per the prime minister's announcement to ensure the development of persons with disabilities.

“The prime minister has said people with disabilities will be provided with services at centres in each Upazila. If there is an officer at the district level and a director at the divisional level, there will be proper supervision,” he said.

"The jobs of the counsellors and other staffers at the disability service and help centres will be government jobs if the foundation turns into a department. They will also have increments. About 108 of our officers and employees have left the jobs due to a lack of facilities; there is no promotion and the jobs are not permanent,” Anisuzzaman added.

He said the foundation had sent all required papers for the transformation to Social Welfare Secretary Mohammad Jainul Bari, who is trying to convene a meeting of the foundation’s patrons that includes Hasina.

“If the prime minister prioritises the matter, it will be done quickly,” he said.

Secretary Jainul claimed the process of transforming the foundation into a department has “made a lot of progress”.

The issue was raised in the secretary committee on administrative development for approval with the consent of the public administration ministry and the finance ministry.

They constituted a committee which made a recommendation, which is awaiting approval, Jainul said.

“It will be forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office after the committee’s approval. We have begun the process,” he added.