Disabled children not registered with Social Welfare Dept because parents embarrassed

Parents who are embarrassed with having disabled children (OKU) may be reluctant to register their children under the Social Welfare Department, says OKU activist Ruziah Ghazali.

Ruziah, who is a member of the National Council for the Disabled, said that's the reason why only 549,554 OKU are registered as of June 2019, when there should be around 4.8 million OKUs in the country, thus denying their right to many privileges of being an OKU card holder.

"Under the World Health Organisation, up to 15 per cent of the population in a country are disabled people.

"Malaysia has about 32 million citizens. If we go by this calculation, we have not even reach 50 per cent of OKUs registered under the Social Welfare Department," she told Malaysiakini.

Ruziah said while some parents of these children are wealthy and don't require government assistance, the registration of their disabled children is still crucial as the number of those registered would affect the government's long term development planning for this group overall.

She said among the benefits of holding the OKU card are the RM400 allowance if the OKU workers earn below RM1,200 at their workplaces, free passport and road tax renewal, and RM150 allowance if they are bed-ridden.

However, the burden to raise such awareness to these parents shouldn't be on the Federal government alone, Ruziah said.

"The states and districts have to share the responsibilities.

"For instance, only Selangor and Kelantan have Disabled People Action Councils, which were formed under their own initiative.

"Where are the other states? We encourage them to form similar councils to ensure the development and agenda reach this group. They could play a huge role to coax parents to register their disabled children under the Social Welfare Department," said Ruziah, who is also the president of the Little People National Organisation.

She said there has been a discussion in the National Council for the Disabled to get the government to amend the Children Act to make sure that these children are registered. However, it is still at a preliminary discussion stage.

Ruziah explained that the council, which is under the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development, is working hard to erase the stigma of charity on the disabled group, and change to a rights-based perspective.

"When it comes to assisting disabled people, the public links it to charity. We don't want sympathy. We want our rights to be treated as fairly as able-bodied people.

"When we are offered a job, we don't want it out of sympathy, but rather of our right to have a career like everyone else. Remember that it is also the right of disabled children to have them registered under the Social Welfare department," she said.

In April, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (above) had said that a minimum quota of one percent of Persons with Disabilities employed in the public sector would be maintained.

Wan Azizah said her Women's Ministry had reached 1.77 percent, with the Defence Ministry coming in second with 0.98 percent, while the Terengganu State Secretariat Office was in third place with 0.97 percent posts filled by OKU.

Ruziah noted that overall that makes up only 0.29 percent.

"I hope government agencies will provide opportunities to qualified disabled people to work," she said. - Mkini