A shame - Life denied by culture

Could this culture protect their rights?

by Ranga Chandrarathne

These children of this Nation, our own sisters and brothers, merely because they are abled differently, are denied of almost everything in the name of the culture.

Some of the misconceptions and cultural practices have effectively denied the inalienable rights of a segment of the population owing to their being born with disabilities or are differently abled. Though the cultural pundits who often appear before the public harping on the age-old virtues of a continuous pure culture, often wilfully neglect the gory features of it and some of the inhuman cultural practices which people have taken for granted and accepted as quite natural.

For some puritans, women's rights and liberation are alien terms in their vocabularies and believe in organised myths even though they had been outrightly rejected by religion and philosophy. The persons with disabilities are erroneously attributed to the sins committed in the previous existences and considered as an affront to the family and relations.

It is also this culture that taught the sight of a person with disabilities, especially in the morning as a bad omen and if any family member happened to be a disabled in both mental and physical aspects, other family members tend to corner him/her. Especially on occasions like a prospective bride or bridegroom visiting the household, they are being hidden in the backyard in order to avoid any mishap or they are sent away to a children's orphanage or to a women's organisation.

The situation turns from bad to worse when the child happened to be a girl. Many of the women with disabilities were not only subjected to inhuman and degrading treatments but, on some occasions, were raped.

This hostile environment coupled with organic cultural prejudices compelled the women with disabilities to form some organizational structure that would act collectively to change the perception on persons with disabilities (PWD) in general and women with disabilities in particular.

AKASA (Association of Women with Disabilities) was founded in 1995 by N.G. Kamalawathie as she herself experienced the discrimination towards PWDs in Sri Lanka after suffering from polio as a child.

Based in Anuradhapura, a district which has the highest number of PWDs, the organisation aims at preventing PWDs from being discriminated socially, economically, politically and culturally. It also raises awareness among the families of PWDs and the general public of the need of the disabled to understand them and help them to lead an independent life.

Kamalawathie is of the view that women with disabilities who were imprisoned or in children's homes should not be directed to an organisation that shelter women with disabilities as it is the responsibility of the authorities in those institutions to cater to the specific needs of the disabled.

She was of the view that persons with disabilities should also be treated equally. They should not be discriminated against. On one occasion she refused to admit a woman detainee who was ordered by the court to be admitted to AKASA on account of her disabilities. However, Kamalawathie had explained that prison authorities should be taught how to care for a detainee with special needs.

She also refuses to accept any alms for the simple reason that this practice would render the child a life-long dependent. Education is a basic right that each and every child is entitled to and a child should not be deprived of this basic right on account of his/ her disabilities.

According to her, the discrimination against PWDs is rampant in some of the Miniseries such as the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Sports. When a woman with disabilities applied for a loan to start a self-employment project, the authorities directed it to the Ministry of Social Services.

The same scenario happened when granting air tickets for disabled sportsmen and women to participate in International Sports tournaments.

The AKASA encourages PWDs in villages to commence self-employment projects and grant loans in a bid to make them independent citizens. Compared to the facilities and equal status enjoyed by PWDs in other developed countries, Sri Lanka has to walk a long way to change the present attitudes towards PWDs and discriminatory social and cultural practices.

AKASA Talawa Centre which is also their Head Quarters, runs a vocational training centre for women with disabilities aimed at creating job opportunities for them. The organisation appreciates the Chief Minister of North Central Province, Berty Premalal Dissanayake and the Provincial Council for their support extended throughout.

It is the responsibility of society at large and the Government in particular to take meaningful measures to arrest those inhuman trends and some of the cultural practices that are discriminatory to persons with disabilities, instead of expending exuberant sums of money on festivals.

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Who raped her? She didn't speak, only her eyes plead justice.

A 15 year old mentally retarded girl was allegedly raped by her mother's relation and she is seven months pregnant. As she is quite unaware of her state, she happily hip hops in the garden when we reached the compound, of her wattle and daub house.

Whoever the culprit may be, what is pertinent here is, is this the so called puritan culture which bred such suspects?