Why We Say Colourless Existence
By
Noorudin.S.Bhamani
(Disability Rights Activist)
(Disability Rights Activist)
Dear Fellow Pakistanis
We have waited for more than sixty two years for our constitutional and Allah-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of Social inclusion, independent living, Positive Attitude and Rights Based Approach of Persons with Disabilities, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a discrimination free environment. Being a Disability Rights Activist, and a Person with Severe Disabilities myself, I request the general public through this Bulletin that, ‘We do not want your SMYPATHY or CHARITY’ but, A warm smile, A nod or a Salaam in greeting, Positive Attitude, Social Inclusion and Rights Based Approach. By Sympathy and Charity you keep our bodies alive, but with the above mention gestures you keep Our Soul, Our Self-Esteem, and Dignity alive. We all are dependent on each other in so many ways that we can no longer live in isolated Communities and ignore what is happening outside those communities. We need to include each other when we have difficulties.
I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of exclusion and to hear, 'Wait!'. But when you have seen cruel pain string up in your mothers and fathers eyes, and drown your siblings and loved ones in tears, when you have seen avoiding attitude, discrimination of your disabled loved ones with impunity; when you see the vast majority of our almost 16 million Persons with Disabilities suffocating in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Amusement parks, restaurants, public places & public parks has no accessibility ramps for Persons with Disabilities, no transport facilities to commute, and see the depressing clouds begin to form in her little mental sky, and sense her begin to distort her little personality unconsciously. When you have to make up an answer for a five-year-old son asking in worrying sorrow: 'Daddy, why do able-bodied people treat Persons with Disabilities so mean?'; when your family or friends take you and your family out for a drive or dinner and find that no restaurant or leisure park will accommodate you because they don’t have adequate facilities for Persons with Disabilities; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading 'FAMILY ROOM UPSTAIRS and ROOFTOP RESTAURANT; when your first name becomes ''chariya – langara – andha – baira - goonga,' your middle name becomes admi/aurat (however old you are) and your last name becomes, DISABLED' and your wife and mother are never given the respected title 'Mrs.'; when you are harassed by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Persons with Disabilities.
These are just a few special cases of discrimination against Persons with Disabilities. Most of the governmental institutions: shops, chemist's shops, restaurants, banks and private offices are not accessible for people on wheel chairs and crutches (they do not have ramps and accessible alternates). It is particularly sad when international organizations and agencies, expected to be examples of universal design, also lack those facilities. The Persons with Disabilities interpret it in the following way: "if there is no access for us to those organizations, it means they do not want to see us". We write letters, we protest, but our actions do not always bring results. The Persons with Disabilities are either not active enough when defending their rights or they cannot overcome the resistance since it is so strong from the able society. We are living constantly at tip-toe stance, to our hearts sniffles, we never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of 'nobodiness'; then you will understand why we find it difficult to survive."
The entire Disabled Community looks forward to your response through this platform and hope you will join hand with us in eradicating the atmosphere of discrimination towards Persons with Disabilities and become our ‘GOOD-WILL AMBASADOR’ in conveying this message all around Pakistan. I speak to you as just another human being; If you find what I say useful, then I hope you will try to practice it.
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