Rights of disabled people to be taken care of

BY LOONG MENG YEE,

THE Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 has been gazetted and came into force on July 7. This is the first rights-based legislation for people with disabilities (PWD).

"With the enforcement of the Act, PWDs will be able to enjoy better public transport facilities, amenities and services.
"They will also have equal opportunities to health, education, information, communication and technology, habilitation and re-habilitation, improved employment opportunities as well as sports, leisure and cultural life," said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen.

"At this point, it is too early for us to assess the effectiveness of the Act.

"Issues affecting the development and well-being of PWDs are cross- cutting, from rehabilitation to housing and social safety.

"Therefore, the responsibility to ensure the PWDs enjoy the rights enshrined in the Act has to be shared by all.

Fight for our rights: Dr Ng (fourth from right) and the rest of the team in the National Council for the People with Disabilities.

"The ministry and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities established under this Act will have to play a crucial role to address and bring foward issues affecting PWDs," said Dr Ng at the first council meeting recently.

She added the council would oversee, co-ordinate and evaluate the implementation of the National Policy and National Plan for Action relating to PWDs.

Dr Ng said Malaysia had moved from charity-based to rights-based to address the issues affecting PWDs. The Department of Social Welfare was committed to the cause of ensuring full participation of PWDs into society.

"The department had introduced rights-based programmes such as Disability Equality Training and Independent Living to PWDs.

"Community-based rehabilitation is promoted and further strengthened to provide early intervention, rehabilitation and training for PWDs in their own community.

"So far, the welfare department supports 379 community-based rehabilitation centres, benefiting 12,000 PWDs," said Dr Ng.

Until May, there were 229,325 PWDs registered with the Welfare Department.

This figure was way too low for the World Health Organisation estimate of between 5% and 10% of the population.
Going by that estimate, Malaysia should be registering 1.3 to 2.6 million PWDs. Dr Ng urged those who had not registered to do so.