International Day of Disabled Persons
By Dr Arvind Kumar
3 December is observed as International Day of Persons with Disabilities annually with an objective to promote an awareness of disability issues, the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities and integration of persons with disabilities in the main stream of each aspect of the social, political, economic and cultural status of their communities. The day extends an opportunity to initialize action to reach the target of full and equal pleasure of human rights and contribution in society by disabled persons, launched by the World Program of Action for Disabled Persons, declared by the UN General Assembly in the year 1982.
On 3rd of December, 2009, and throughout the week starting from this day, people across the world joined together to recognize the persons with disabilities expressing support, and enhancing awareness. This year was focused on the right to act. People with disabilities should be assisted and supported by other people of their own free sweet will in taking their decisions, was the objective of this year.
The right to act is universally endorsed as a fundamental and basic human right. Its implementation as a right to all individual seems so rudimentary that we forget that for persons with disabilities, the right to work is not always imperative. In terms of physical, institutional and attitudinal barriers, disable persons are often refrained from their right to act.
The World Health Organization affirms that there are 600 million disabled people living worldwide, about almost 10% of the entire earth population. It is also evaluated that about 80% of these disabled people live in developing nations.
Globally, it is assumed that one in every ten people is a person with a disability and recent studies states that persons with disabilities populates up to 20 per cent of the population living in under poverty line in developing countries. Number of persons with disabilities still face barriers to their participation in activities of their communities and are mostly compelled to live under the poverty line.
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