Treatment of the handicapped (in Asia)

The handicapped have often been said to be a burden on their family, the community and the government and are often being discriminated as being the weaker members in society. With the number of handicaps estimated to be at 600 million, where 80 per cent of them are living in Asia. It begs the question whether Asia is ready to embrace the great number of handicapped people.

Unfortunately, in some countries, disparity in the treatment of the disabled still exists. Such instances can be seen in China.

During the Beijing Paralympics (scheduled for September 6-17), while Chinese television and newspapers are full of news about the Games, and about the medals won by disabled Chinese athletes, there is still difference in the treatment of the disabled in the country, especially for those who want to work. Zhao Chunluan, director of the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation, says that 83 million handicapped people in China "suffer discrimination" in various forms.

Last August 28, on the occasion of the lighting of the Olympic torch for the games for the disabled, Li Caimao, director of the government committee for the disabled, expressed his hope that the Olympic event would represent "the ideal opportunity" for China and its people to improve "awareness and understanding" toward the disabled. It is a hope that so far has gone unheeded, because many business owners deliberately "violate the law", preferring to pay fines rather than hire handicapped workers.

"Some companies", affirms Zhao Chunluan, "argue they do not want to hire those with disabilities on the grounds that there are still a lot of healthy people, or even university students, waiting for jobs". "Enterprises are required by law to hire the disabled, otherwise they have to face fines and other kinds of punishments". "But some firms", the activist denounces, "prefer to pay the fines rather than hire disabled people". She emphasizes, however, that "such people are only a minor proportion" of Chinese society, which does not have "prejudices of any kind" toward the disabled.

"People do want to understand the disabled", she continues, "but they are ignorant of their condition. Chinese society itself is not inhumane. But our society is not fully informed about disabled people's suffering". For this reason, the activist calls for "new policies to educate people about the reality of the millions of physically and mentally disabled" (about 6% of the population) living in China today.

In many cases, the cause of physical or psychological injury is in the rapid and often uncontrolled process of industrialization seen in the country in recent decades: in its effort to reach the objective of double-digit economic growth, the workplace has often overlooked the most basic safety procedures. Many of the disabled, in fact, are victims of accidents in the factories or on construction sites, and now have no work or possibility of social reintegration.
Last March, during a meeting of the politburo presided over by President Hu Jintao, the leaders of the communist party decided to increase funding for the disabled, only half of whom receive health care in the cities, and a miserable 2% in the countryside. In view of the Paralympics, the government has also launched a massive publicity campaign aimed at promoting the rights of the disabled and attention to them, but their real living conditions do not seem to have improved.

Such disparity in the treatment of the handicapped can also be seen in North Korea, where handicapped are being locked up in camps with harsh and "subhuman conditions", categorising them according to their physical disabilities, as reported by a human rights investigator.

Defectors from North Korea have testified "without exception" about the existence of collective camps where the handicapped are assigned according to their physical deformity or disability.

For example, the report, citing a South Korean human rights study, said: "Midgets are not allowed to reproduce and they are rounded up and relocated."

Viti Muntarbhorn of Thailand, a human rights law specialist, wrote the survey for the U.N. General Assembly, which may adopt a resolution based on his findings. He relied on information from outside the country after Pyongyang refused to allow him to visit.

"It is reported that those with disabilities are sent away from the capital city, and particularly those with mental disability are detained in areas or camps known as 'Ward 49' with harsh and subhuman conditions," Muntarbhorn wrote.

In view of this differentiated treatment of the handicapped in Asian society, actions are undertaken and progress has been made in the treatment of the handicapped. Governmental institutions have been making changes to their policies, or even putting in place new policies to help the handicapped people. Also, to cope with the great numbers of handicapped people, they have introduced handicapped-friendly technologies.

An example would be China. China has developed buses and subways that are user-friendly for physically handicapped people, through the usage of lifts and ramps. The China government has also given out pamphlets to educate the public about the disabled, advising the public to be more sensitive toward the handicapped. The efforts put in by the government as shown in the example above reflects that Asia is becoming more receptive toward the handicapped.

In addition, China is aiming to offer free medical treatment to 30,000 handicapped orphans within three years.

The "Tomorrow Plan", funded by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), a three-year project that started in 2004, aims to give 30,000 handicapped orphans free operations.

There are approximately 66,000 orphans and abandoned babies living in welfare homes nationwide and about half of them are disabled.

"We have decided to extend aid to more handicapped children, whose families can not afford to pay for the operations," said DouYupei, Vice-Minister of Civil Affairs, when visiting hospitals that will perform the operations.

So far, about 16,000 disabled orphans have received surgery and rehabilitation. Compared with the country's total number of 573,000 orphans, with a large number of disabled ones yet to be counted, there is a lot of work to be done.