Disability rights activist urges ministries to open dedicated helpline for PWD

A disability rights activist has suggested that each ministry has a dedicated helpline for people with disabilities (PWD) to address their issues.

K Bathmavathi, who is also a former senator, stressed that currently the issues concerning people with disabilities are being handled by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

"The issues of people with disabilities come under the Women Ministry... there is one helpline that takes all the complaints.

"I recommend every ministry to have a line dedicated to people with disabilities.

"For instance, the helpline under the transport ministry will listen to the problems pertaining parking problems, licences, and approvals," Bathmavathi said in an aired conference on Facebook in a discussion titled "The Impact of MCO on People with Disabilities”.

As for persons with disabilities who come across an infrastructure barrier, Bathmavathi (below) urged them to complain to the local authority.

"I notice that a lot of complaints were shared among people with disabilities themselves.

"That is not going to solve anything. We have to aim at the parties who are responsible for providing the solution, that is the local authority.

For the record, there is a mobile application called ACTnow that will connect the community to 155 local authorities nationwide.

Another panellist, Ng Lai Thin, who is the project officer of the National Early Childhood Intervention Council, urged the government to consult people with disabilities before making any decision.

"Do not put persons with disabilities in the after-thought. Please consult them from the get-go because every decision without taking their considerations would affect their livelihoods," she said.

Bathmavathi noted that the movement control order had tremendously affected people with disabilities in earning their income.

She cited an example of blind masseurs who were left with no income after massage services were not allowed.

"They did not have income at all. It was a real challenge for them."

The government had eventually allowed the spas and wellness and reflexology services to resume operations on July 1, which reopened the opportunity for some 3,000 blind masseurs to earn their income. - Mkini