Our society has by now fairly learnt to treat the physically challenged people humanely. It has recognised their rights to live with dignity like any other normal human beings. Thanks to the sustainable efforts of the government, humanitarian organisations and media as a whole, the negative attitude of people in society towards the persons with disabilities has greatly changed for the better. But it must be said that in the work of rehabilitating the disabled persons through educating and training them on income generating means is still at the rudimentary level. The institutional support in this regard is very inadequate. Even then, it is good to know that, on the occasion of the 24th International Day of Persons with Disabilities yesterday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina again expressed her govern­ment’s firm commitment to lift the standard of life of the disabled people. There is no doubt that she has genuine feelings for these special people because her family is involved in this humanitarian work. Her daughter Saima Wazed Putul’s untiring service in this regard is very unique.
However, it is a very welcome development that the government has reserved one per cent quota for the persons with disabilities in grade-I job and 10 per cent for grade III and IV jobs. The expanding corporate sector of the country has also to come forward to appoint physically challenged people in jobs. It is a common perception that these people can deliver very little in terms of work output. But the reality is quite different.
By virtue of their sincerity, which is not usually seen even among the normal people, physically challenged people make up the balance in the work output and even in some cases they perform enviously. That is why job givers have nothing to worry about performance while appointing a challenged person in job. They can really be assets for an organisation.
But the real challenge lies in turning the physically as well as mentally challenged people into productive workforce. Now is the time to invest money and time to create institutions that can effectively educate and train them for work. The more we have this kind of institutions in our society the better. Many commercial banks of the country have started their CSR activities. They can now very practically focus their attention on the physically challenged people. In fact, educational and training institutions for the disabled persons can be built up jointly by government, NGOs and commercial banks’ CSR departments.