Disable Women in Bangladesh Essay Example for Free

Disable Women in Bangladesh Essay Disability is something that we take negatively, most commonly in Bangladesh we like to address them â€Å"Protibondhi†, a vague and unrealistic terminology. Let’s see what disability is from the World Health Organization’s definition: Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Thus disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives. Nowadays we do not call these even disabilities, we term them as impaired. A person may also qualify as impaired if he/she has had impairment in the past or is seen as disabled based on a personal or group standard or norm. Such impairments may include physical, sensory, and cognitive or developmental disabilities. Mental disorders (also known as psychiatric or psychosocial disability) and various types of chronic disease may also qualify as disabilities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 7. 5 million women with disabilities in Bangladesh, which is certainly a matter of consideration to the government. Human rights which has been a â€Å"talk of the world† is the most important thing that government needs to ensure for them Human rights is something that is â€Å"inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being. Researches have been done and significant as well as worrying issues have been identified on the human rights condition and survival pattern of girls with disabilities. Types and degrees of disability: The breakup or distribution of disability among the adolescent girls and women with disabilities broadly appeared the same to the national average. The major group has physical disability, 37. 33% among adolescence girls, and 40% among women. Speech and hearing, visual and intellectual disabilities come to the next categories. Multiple disabilities were seen the least at a compiled figure of 10%. As to the degree of disability, the moderates rest on the top at 36. 13%. The lowest is the ‘profound’ category at 9. 5%. The interesting point to note is that in ‘severe’ category, the percentage of affected girls with disability is higher in comparison to woman with disability. It is really eye-catching. Human rights issues: The very right to security of human life has been violated on many occasions when it relates to the girls and women with disabilities. They had been sexually abused, physically tortured, verbally abused. Even i n some cases they became disabled due to violence etc. inflicted upon them. They did not even get opportunity to demand justice. Moreover, they were blamed as guilty because of handicapping environment. The girls and women with disabilities are usually deprived of getting access to treatment and health care facilities. Social beliefs and superstitions in many cases caused such deprivation. They have been deprived of the rights of basic education. The school authorities in many cases refused to enroll the girls with disabilities although they had potentialities. This is a violation of the right to education defined in the Declaration of Education for All and the National Disability Policy. Communication is a basic human right but there is no such recognized communication mechanism (Bangla Sign language) for the speech and hearing impaired persons in the country. Treatment: Data revealed that 93. 33% of girls and 97. 50% of women with disabilities had at some stages of their lives received some kind of treatment for their impairment and disability. At times, as the data indicate that when it appears that no cure is possible, most families become hopeless and refrain from seeking further services (though essential) for girls and women with disabilities. This disillusionment or apathy pays a heavy toll on the girls and women with disabilities. The respondent families of the girls and women with disabilities had sought treatment from a varied range of sources even at high costs. The family members paid about 89% of the treatment costs. This indicates the state of poor health service delivery to the persons with disabilities at state level, which has mandatory obligation to deliver such minimum medi-care cost free. That is the poorest of the poor even do not get the bare basics of health services. Education:  Disability is a barrier to education. Only 3. 75% proceeded to university education in the woman with disability group. The highest enrollment can be seen at the primary school level at 21. 25% for women with disabilities and 30. 67% for girls with disabilities respectively. Most of the girls and women with disabilities who are pursuing education have to attend in formal schools due to the existing provision of free primary education. The second highest numbers of learners attend in non-formal educational institution. Enrolment in special education is much lower. A massive 64% (average figures of girls and women with disabilities combined) dropout rate occurs from primary to secondary level. 36. 06% of the women with disabilities and 36. 58% of the girls with disabilities were either teased or their venture to study were not supported (not in favour) by other members of their surrounding environment. Accessibility to the educational institution is one of the major problems for girls and women with physical disabilities. Girls with disabilities residing in hostels face problems due to absence of female house parent which limits sharing of feminine and other essential needs. The most humiliating thing is that the teachers are also involved in teasing their disabled learners. In spite of all of these inconveniences and handicapping environment, the girls and women with disabilities have potentials to be in mainstream education. Some are in education process where their disability is not visibly identified. Employment: It was discouraging to note that very insignificant number of respondents (3. 21%) from the two groups were involved in full time income generating activities. 64. 2% were sitting idle with no work. However some of them, particularly the women with disabilities (21. 88%) were somehow earning some income through different activities mostly in the informal sector. Although the number is not mentionable, some women with disabilities are engaged in multi-sectorial jobs like office job, teaching, small business, day-laborer, housemaid, handicrafts worker, dairy poultry raising, sewing, and house-hold works etc. In most cases they managed to arra nge the job themselves with out any external support. The income of the women or girls with disabilities is mostly spent in meeting the family needs but their family and the society do not always encourage the engagement in jobs/works of the girls or women with disabilities. Marriage, conjugal relationship and dowry: The involvement in romantic relationship ranks very high in lifes priorities for most women. The study focused on such personal factors like attitudes toward marriage, behavioral aspect, the effect of disability on the partners behaviour; environmental factors, social attitudes and family expectations of the respondents. Situation is reversed in case of women or adolescent girls with disabilities. Arranged marriage is still customary in the society of Bangladesh. The percentage of adolescent marriage is 48%. This is discouraging, yet the family can find spouse. The rate of marriage of adolescent girls with disabilities is only 2%. One of the major causes of the frustration of women with disabilities and their families is people are hesitant to marry a disabled girl. Most of the marriages of women with disabilities took place against consideration or offering of big amount of cash or kind, even land as dowry. Community and family attitudes: The overall development of a girl or woman with disability depends on the attitudes of the people or community surrounding them. In cases of positive attitudes from family, and other concerned in the society, the girls or women with disability seems to be more confident and have success in life while the negative attitudes made the girl or woman with disability depressed, dependant and a person with low self-esteem. It revealed that only 7. 10% participated in games and sports. A larger, yet still negligible, number of the respondents, 26. 3%, participated in social activities. However, figures state that actual participation is low by women and girls with disabilities, but in terms of their intention to participate, the response is satisfactorily high. 53. 5% reported that they were interested to participate, while only 7. 5% commented that they would never like to participate. In the adolescence group, the families with members in between 6 to 10 numbered highest with figures of 80 (53. 33%). Families with members in between 1 to 5, numbering 65 (43. 33%) come next. For a larger family it is possible to share the care-time required for the disabled family member. Abuse: Women with disabilities appear to be at high risk for emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. The prevalence of abuse of the girls and women with disabilities was 92% for both groups. Al most the equal percentage of women and girls with disabilities reported emotional abuse (78% and 75%), incidents of physical abuse (82% for both) are also same. And cases of sexual abuses (32% and 37%) have however, little difference. In many cases parents also abuse the girls and women with disabilities. Most of the incidences of sexual abuses occur among the girls and women with intellectual disabilities. In the second frequency of sexual abuse towards girls and women with disabilities goes to hearing impairment. This is surprising to note that the traditional healers abuse the girls and women with disabilities sexually in the name of offering therapy or treatment. Not only the abused girls and women even their family members do not feel comfortable to disclose such cases of abuses because of social threat or embarrassment. Reproductive health:  Most of the girls and women are not much aware of the issues related to the phases of reproductive health. People identified disability, particularly of the women, as a risk factor for reproductive health. The society is still conservative to discuss reproductive health issues. The parents (even mothers) do not share any sexual and reproductive health issues or information with their daughters. Most of the adolescent girls get idea about the phases of physical development and transition period (internal transformation or menstrual) from peers, elder sisters, sister-in-laws, grandmothers etc. Majority of the girls with disabilities had experienced serious problem of shock, phobia, depression, and embarrassment while facing period. Especially the girls with speech and hearing impairment face difficulty in passing this period due to limited communication capability. Physical growth: Natural physical growth is a normal development process in the human body due to hormonal changes. The physical change also effects changes in behaviour and attitudes of a person, but in case of intellectual disabled, family could not measure or notice such physical changes that are usually expected and hence they became worried. Psychological phenomenon: The psychology of the girls and women with disabilities is dependent on many emotional, environmental and social factors such as self-assessment, personal acceptance, family and social attitude, isolation and etc. Many girls and women even with minor disabilities are facing problems of acceptance in their families. Segregation from the society and family was common feature for girls and women with disabilities in many cases. In many cases, the girls and women with disabilities were segregated even at their work places. It is evident that the girls and women with disabilities are deprived of their Basic Human Rights like food, clothes, education and treatment etc. That creates negative influence on overall psychological development or mindset of the disabled women and girls. Sexual abuses in many cases have caused stressful situation on the psyche of the girls and women with disabilities, which ultimately made them isolated and frustrated. Ability, dignity and self-esteem: Majorities of the girls and women with disabilities including severe level of disabilities have the confidence to be educated and subsequent engagement in contributing activities. Many of them have skills in trades like sewing, cooking, painting, handicrafts, tailoring, dairy and poultry raising and etc. There are evidences of extra-ordinary achievement by severely disabled women. Some of the girls and women with disabilities who had luckily access to employment, developed romantic relationship with the desired one and are now living a happy married life. The self-esteem of the girls and women with disabilities is more strongly influenced by social and environmental factors.