A RAMP on the ground floor, that too, in not much public infrastructure, not to speak of the private ones, is what people with disabilities have, at best, had in 54 years since independence. People with disabilities believe that this has come about after years of advocacy. The National Building Code 2020 is, perhaps, the only piece of legislation that has given a focus on the use of ramps, disability-friendly toilets and Braille in lifts. Yet, the implementation has been scarce. Such inadequate accessibility in infrastructure has kept people with disabilities away from essential services, education and employment. And, the number of such people is not insignificant. A social services department survey, as 抖阴精品 reported on September 21, shows 3.65 million people with disabilities have been registered. They include about 1.44 million women and 2,931 transgender individuals. The disabilities vary from physical challenges to mental disorders and from visual impairment to cerebral palsy. Yet, they have little access to infrastructure that deals with public transport, hospitals, educational institutions, footpaths and roads, which are mostly designed as disability-unfriendly.
They cannot use public infrastructure with ease. They cannot use the road and the footpath as they are not disability-friendly. Some of them have tactile paving but wrongly placed. They find it difficult to access health services in public hospitals as the equipment is unfriendly. They are exposed to rude behaviour as the people offering services are not trained to interact with people with disabilities. They cannot use public transport as the bus counters and, even, vehicles hardly accommodate them. They cannot board trains and ferries because of steep steps or flawed gangways. They are denied jobs. The National Disability Development Foundation, founded in 1999, has only been known for its focus on observing days and holding meetings. It received an allocation of Tk 1 billion in 2016 for accessibility development, but nothing tangible has so far happened. The foundation is reported to have been run by an official, whose role there is his additional duty. The foundation says that it is working to enforce the Disability Development Foundation Act 2023, meant to mainstream people with disabilities. Why was the act made in 2023? Has the foundation been working to enforce the act since then? Besides, there has been the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act since 2013. Whilst the government is reported to be working on the Sustainable Development Goals, there has been little progress to help people with disabilities to move forward.
But the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015 and meant to be achieved by 2030, is built on the principle of 鈥榣eaving no one behind.鈥� With such a dismal performance, a Bangladesh even moderately inclusive of people with disabilities is highly unlikely by the time frame.