The Hindu
Sunday Magazine
The invisible 83 million
The recently concluded Paralympic Games in Beijing have
brought some much needed attention to China's disabled community, whose
members lead largely invisible lives on the margins of a society where strong
negative attitudes towards disability persist. ANANTH KRISHNAN
WHEN I BOUGHT AIR-CONDITIONERS, MY NEIGHBOURS SAID, `HOW DARE YOU WASTE ENERGY
ON THESE KINDS OF PEOPLE?' GAO YA LI
When Gao Ya Li opened one of Shanghai's first ever schools for children with
Cerebral Palsy (CP), her neighbours were puzzled. "Why on earth would you open
a school for the can fei (the useless)?," they asked.
Gao's only child was born with CP. Shortly after Jun was born, her husband left
her. Every doctor she visited prescribed long lists of medicines and expensive
acupuncture therapies to help "cure" her son. After years of ineffective
treatment, she finally came to the conclusion that none of those doctors knew
anything at all about her son's condition.
Gao travelled the length and breadth of China, looking for help. She travelled
to Beijing and Changchun in the northeast, to Nanjing and Wuhan. But after
years of searching, Gao realised the help she was looking for was not to be
found in China. So Gao started her own school.
Her journey reflects the struggle people with disabilities still face in China.
In the last decade, the Chinese Government has passed a number of laws to
address the issue. The most important one, the 1990 law on the Protection of
Disabled Persons, for the first time legally guaranteed protection for people
with disabilities, providing them with state assistance, healthcare and
employment.
In June, China ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, and a law passed in July called for giving every disabled
Chinese citizen "access to rehabilitation services by 2015."
Long overdue laws
Photos: Lingbing Hang LACK OF
VISIBILITY: People with disabilites still struggle for acceptance in society.
The laws are long overdue in a society that has, historically, had little time
for its disabled members. But the persistence of negative social attitudes
has limited the impact of state legislations. Pejorative terms like can fei are
still in use; but undoubtedly the most telling reflection of the status
of China's disabled population is their invisibility.
"The hardest thing, without doubt, is leaving the house and going out on the
street," says Pilar Tan, a Shanghai businesswoman who adopted an orphan with
CP from Shaanxi province. "When my son came to Shanghai, people on the street
would look at him as if he was from a circus. On the street, people would
stop and stare. They would even walk closer for a better look! They would not
care what I, as a mother, would think. I have been driven to screaming at
people to look away."
Pilar enrolled her son at Gao's school, where he studies along with 45 other
children who have a range of mental disabilities like CP and Down Syndrome.
Gao's school, like the community it works for, is hard to find. Tucked away in
Gubei in Shanghai's western city limits, the school is nestled in a maze
of apartment buildings. When the school opened in 1996, it was one of only five
privately run special-needs schools in a city, which has a disabled population
of 9,40,000, although in recent years, the local government has stepped up its
efforts to increase access to education by setting up 'Sunshine homes' for
special-needs children in every district.
"Earlier, there was so much ignorance," Gao says. "There was just no conception
of improvement. If you were born disabled, you had no hope. China has always
had a large disabled population, but for much of our history, no one has ever
paid them any attention."
Gao faced a lot of resistance when she opened her school. "When I bought
air-conditioners, my neighbours said, 'How dare you waste energy on these kinds
of people?' There were a lot of suspicions in the community about what I was
doing, but little by little, parents in the community began to pay attention."
Unfriendly workplace
A recent study into the lives of Shanghai's disabled community by Fudan
University found that the biggest concern was unfriendly work environments - 65
per cent of those surveyed in three Shanghai districts said they were unhappy
with attitudes at the workplace.
The study also found that 30 per cent of people surveyed said there had been no
improvement in their living situations with regard to employability and
social acceptance in the last five years. Twenty per cent said things had got
worse, and half of the respondents said things had improved. A lack of
employment
opportunities was, by far, the biggest concern.
The situation in rural China is even worse - in fact, Shanghai is regarded as
one of the better performing cities when it comes to providing welfare for
people with disabilities. While the Chinese government has instituted a system
of tax incentives for employers who hire people with disabilities, the consensus
is that they do not seem to be working.
"The tax reductions have not really made any difference to hiring practices,"
Gao says. "Most companies are happier paying the extra money." Executives
of local companies said in interviews they were happy to pay salaries to
disabled employees whom they have on their books, but discouraged them from
showing
up as they feared their presence would have a negative impact on the work
environment.
Ji Meibin, principal of a Government-run special-needs school in Shanghai, says
that only "a handful" of his school's 2,000 students will get white-collar
jobs. Some will be hired by neighbourhood supermarkets, but most graduates will
remain unemployed.
But, as the head of a government school, Ji is reluctant to be drawn on how
well or not government policies have worked. "The fact is the government also
gives 400 Yuan (US$ 58) a month in subsidies, as well as medical benefits," Ji
says. "Attending our school is also free. The regulations are more than
enough."
Ji's school has also developed a unique system to allow some of the children to
earn some money while they attend classes. The school has an arrangement
with a Shanghai-based soap manufacturer, which has the children working on
packaging soap for one hour every day, in between their lessons.
But Gao says these solutions do not address the heart of the problem - a lack
of visibility in society. That is why the Paralympics that recently concluded
in Beijing are being viewed with such optimism by disabled rights campaigners
like Gao, who believe they have the potential to leave a lasting impression
on Chinese society.
The events in Beijing were well attended, exceeding most expectations, and
state television channels extensively broadcast almost every event through the
day. "There is no question people will be encouraged to see how brave the
athletes are," Gao says. "It is a start but of course there still need to be
many more opportunities for people with disabilities to join society."
Gao says the first thing she tells parents who enrol their children in her
school is to take their children out on the street as often as possible. "I tell
them, take your kids out to the park, to the shops, wherever you can, and
however difficult it might be," Gao says. "Because that is the only way people
will ever become used to us."
________________________________
Notice: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, use,
review, distribution, printing or copying of the information contained in this
e-mail message and/or attachments to it are strictly prohibited. If you have
received this email by error, please notify us by return e-mail or telephone
and immediately and permanently delete the message and any attachments. The
recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of
viruses. The Bank accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus
transmitted by this email.
To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe.
To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please
visit the list home page at
http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
