•Official figures showed China had 8.6 million workers registered with disabilities last year, up 0.76 percent year-on-year.
•The University in Qingdao, Shandong province, was proposed by the China Disabled Persons' Federation in 2015 to help address the shortfall of rehabilitation talent.
Image: Reuters
China's latest plan on promoting human rights has pledged to create half a million urban jobs for disabled people by 2025.
This was one of a range of targets related to disabled people's welfare set out in the Human Rights Action Plan (2021-25) released by the State Council Information Office on September 9. China has an estimated 85 million disabled people, with 35.6 million registered with the authorities by the end of 2019.
The plan, the fourth of its kind since 2009, also pledged to offer occupational training for two million disabled people in rural and urban regions and roll out an employment counseling system. Official figures showed China had 8.6 million workers registered with disabilities last year, up 0.76 percent year-on-year.
The other targets involve areas including welfare and social security, education, employment, accessible facilities and the availability of accessible aids and rehabilitation therapies.
For example, the plan also mentioned the construction of the University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and the building of 100 mental health facilities by 2025.
The University in Qingdao, Shandong province, was proposed by the China Disabled Persons' Federation in 2015 to help address the shortfall of rehabilitation talent. It is expected to be finished by the end of this year. It has been hailed as the world's only university focused on the rehabilitation of disabled people.
Many disabled people in rural areas still had limited access to such services and some were still using prosthetic legs they had made themselves out of wood. Official figures showed that the coverage of basic rehabilitation therapies and training among registered disabled people reached 80 per cent by the end of last year, up from 65.6 per cent five years ago.
"Their indomitable fighting spirit and patriotism have inspired every one of us, it also shows that China has made important achievements in protecting the human rights of people with disabilities."Human rights official
The human rights document also included plans to subsidise 1.1 million families with disabled members for projects that improve domestic accessibility, such as by adding elevators, sit-on toilets and handrails.
About 7.1 million people with disabilities escaped poverty during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, figures from the federation showed.
Notable progress has been made in recent years in the cause of disabled people and the quality of the group's social participation has kept improving. An example of this feat is the dominating performances by Chinese Paralympians at the Tokyo Summer Paralympic Games.
China sent 251 athletes — including 132 women — to the Tokyo Paralympic Games, where about 4,400 athletes from 162 countries and regions competed in 22 sports. Team China won 207 medals, including 96 golds, and topped the medal table for the fifth consecutive Games.
"Their indomitable fighting spirit and patriotism have inspired every one of us," said a human rights official, adding that it “also shows that China has made important achievements in protecting the human rights of people with disabilities."
According to the United Nations, disability is a condition or function judged to be significantly impaired, relative to the usual standard of an individual of their group. The term is often used to refer to individual functioning, including physical impairment, sensory impairment, cognitive impairment, intellectual impairment, mental illness, and various types of chronic disease.
Image: File
As a result of their vulnerability, People with Disabilities (PWDs) have generally poorer health, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities.
Basically, this is due to the oftentimes personal and institutional challenges they undergo due to lack of customised services. PWDs face many obstacles not just related to the physical environment, but also those that result from lack of legislation or policy, including societal attitudes and discrimination.
In Kenya, PWDs are protected in the Constitution under the Persons with Disabilities Act No. 14 of 2003. Among others, the Act spells out the mandate of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, and the rights and privileges of PWDs. In essence, the Act aims at creating an enabling environment for the rehabilitation of PWDs, and equalisation of opportunities for them.
Well, PWDs in the country have come a long way. Over the years, attitudes have changed and society now views people with challenges with more understanding, than with helpless pity. People have realised that those without the use of some of their faculties could be genius in other areas of their lives.
By law and in principle, PWDs are receiving the necessary help they need both at social and professional levels. There is still more work to be done though. Like other vulnerable people, PWDs need to feel fully empowered.
The writer is the Executive Director of South-South Dialogues, a Nairobi based research and development communication think tank.