Minister Acharya calls for changing mentality towards people with disabilities

Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens, Surendra Raj Acharya, has said the Ministry is committed to taking progressive approach to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities.

In his address to the 'National Dialogue on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities' here today, the Minister said the government had guaranteed various legal provisions aiming to promote dignity and rights of people with disabilities. "The Ministry is committed to bringing such provisions including the international convention concerning them into a real practice."

The event was jointly organised by the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens, National Disability Fund, the Delegation of the European Union to Nepal, Nepal-based Embassy of Norway and the Save the Children.

Commending the role of non-government organisations to the improvement of the rights of people with disabilities, the Minister wished to see such cooperation in the days to come.

"It is urgent to change our mentality and to de-learn a discriminatory approach against persons with disabilities so that they could live with dignity and exercise their rights," the Minister asserted.

Such programme would be beneficial in exploring new ideas, identifying problems and cutting through difficulties in course of implementing provision related to disabilities, said the minister. The programme aimed to inform about challenges children with disabilities are facing and safeguarding their rights.

Similarly, the ministry secretary Suman Raj Aryal stressed the need for resolving problems facing disabled people in togetherness with all sectors including the private and non-governmental organisations and in coordination with the government of all three levels.

UNICEF Representative for Nepal, Elke Wisch, lauded Nepal regarding implementation of the commitments made by the Government of Nepal in the international level for the protection and empowerment of people with disabilities. She viewed that provisions on social justice and other related arrangements stipulated as the fundamental rights in the Constitution of Nepal were favourable in the protection of the interest of the PWD.

The UNICEF Representative stressed on increasing employment opportunities to the disabled people.

UNICEF Social Police Chief Usha Mishra presented a paper entitled 'Status of Children with Disabilities in Nepal'.

President of National Disabled Fund, Dek Raj Bhattarai and president of Disabled Women Association of Nepal, Tika Dahal and other resource persons working in the disability sector, especially disabled children, participated in the panel discussion on the occasion.

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