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Convention on the Rights of Children with Disabilities

The Case of Nepal

More activities are there now in both the CRC field and in the field of disability in Nepal. This is also the crucial case for MS-Nepal with its strong commitment toward meeting the needs of disabled people by including disability as a cross cutting issue in its new policy paper. This initiative is seen as a human rights issue and certainly is a continuation of the commitment to children with special needs and disabilities as can be seen in the MS support to Basic and Primary Education Project under the Special Education Programme.

Nepal ratified the CRC in 1990 and is now in the process of preparing its second report on CRC status and progress to the CRC Committee in Geneva. The Ministry of Children, Women and Social Welfare is responsible for preparing a report, which should be submitted this year. The Ministry has recognised that it will be beneficial to include all relevant ministries and I/NGOs in the preparation of the report. The first step in this process was a planning workshop that took place on 21 March 2000. Resource persons from Nepal and a host of other countries participated in the workshop.

In connection with a revision of its current strategy (Strategy 2000), the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) has invited everyone to participate in a public debate on a revised strategy for Danish development assistance called “Partnership 2000”. Among many other issues, questions are raised whether for example support of children and youth and of persons with disabilities and the elderly should be given more emphasis in the Danish development assistance. As part of such considerations, a Danida Identification and Formulation Mission visited Nepal in March 2000 for ensuring the rights and needs of children. The objective of this mission was to contribute to the development of a strategy for addressing the child rights perspective within the context of the present Danish Sector Programme Support, Project Support and NGO Support to Nepal. The team was also required to make recommendations on more general steps that DANIDA could take into consideration to increased awareness of possibilities of including a child rights perspective in its ongoing and future development assistance.

The CRC perspective emphasises four main themes -- survival, development, protection and participation. Specific objectives are stated for each theme, for example, articles 28 and 29 deal with education; specifying not only the right to education for all children but also the general objectives of education. Article 23 explicitly stresses the right of children with disabilities to special care, education and training designed to help them achieve the greatest possible self-reliance and to lead a full active life in the society. In this regard, the article furthermore points to the international co-operation. Although, the CRC covers the rights of all children, many children in Nepal are not ensured of the basic rights laid down in the convention. This is certainly the case for children with disabilities who are most frequently looked down upon.

MS Nepal has been involved in the education sector through its collaboration with Basic and Primary Education Programme and especially with the Special Education Programme.

In addition to the CRC, other international declarations and statements have provided several guidelines as to how to obtain the rights to inclusion and participation of the disabled children. These include, among others, the Declaration on Education for All (Jomtien, 1990), the special focus on special needs for education (Salamanca, 1994) and the UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1994).

The guiding principle for the Salamanca Framework is that “schools should accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This should include disabled and gifted children, children from remote or nomadic populations, children from linguistic, ethnic or cultural minorities and children from disadvantaged or marginalized areas or groups. It is furthermore emphasised that schools have to find ways of successfully educating all children, including those who have serious disadvantages and disabilities along with children and youths with special educational needs. This has led to the concept of inclusive education.

As is well known by the Ekchhin readers, the right to education for all children as stated in the CRC is far from being met in Nepal. Children with disabilities are among the groups most often excluded from access to school and education. It is estimated that only about 1% of children with disabilities have access to school or any education. So far, the ones who go to school are either in special schools run by NGOs or in special classes established under BPEP I. In most cases, children have to live in hostels far away from home and family to have access to these classes. An independent evaluation of the special education programme has been conducted and the evaluation report clearly pointed out the need to change the special education system from special classes and hostels to a much more inclusive approach. This has been recognised by the Ministry of Education and is reflected in the implementation plans for BPEP II. Many donors of the education sector hold this view positively. The planning of district based inclusive education/school programmes for the wider target group defined in the Salamanca Framework has recently started within the BPEP II.

The DANIDA team met with many different institutions and NGOs. The team was apprised of the existing problems in ensuring the rights of children as to the CRC in Nepal. The team also met with creative and committed individuals who conveyed optimistic and convincing examples of how it is possible to overcome barriers to participation and inclusion and promote the basic rights of children with special needs in a Nepali context.

At least two excellent examples of inclusive approaches to education of children with disabilities could serve as a model for the development of inclusive education in Nepal or elsewhere.

One is the Bhimad Pilot Programme from Tanahu district initiated by one of the MS development workers engaged in the BPEP special education programme. Rita Tisdall and her colleagues and partners in several meetings described their struggle to change the previous BPEP programme into a multifaceted inclusive education programme. The Bhimad Pilot programme can serve as an inspiration and a strong model for ways of changing existing resource class/hostel special education programme to a flexible, inclusive education programme covering many more children with special needs and their families and for developing new programmes.

The other one is the Bhaktapur CBR programme presented to the team by one of its dedicated leaders and founders Surya Prajapati. The Bhaktapur CBR programme was established through a local initiative from the Bhaktapur Jaycees, which is a young people’s organisation founded to foster fraternity and world peace. Since 1985 Jaycees started its commitment to children with disabilities by initiating a school integration programme for the mentally retarded children through its own resources. Since then the CBR programme has grown through collaboration with UNICEF and Redd Barna and through its own means and commitment as well.

Today, the Bhaktapur CBR programme is running many different activities best suited to the needs of the disabled and the needy ones. To redress the lack of any information about children and adults with disabilities, a house- to- house survey in Bhaktapur district was conducted with the help of CBR field workers, volunteers, local authorities and other organisations in their spare time. Today, there is a CBR representative in all VDCs and municipalities of the district. The CBR representatives serve as local contact persons and follow-up on new information, which is fed back to the VDCs to act on.

The CBR provides full rehabilitation services for children with disabilities identified, including home visits, counselling of parents and teachers, medical and physical intervention, school integration, provision of supportive devices, vocational training in the face of existing facilities and job rehabilitation. Special units for deaf children and for children with multiple disabilities have been established. In addition to this, CBR has also been conducting a general health check up programme to help prevent disabilities and promote public awareness about disabilities and ensure early intervention. Special clinics provide specific services like ear care for the children. Training of CBR field workers and volunteers has become a comprehensive part of the programme. Finally, the Bhaktapur CBR programme has established an independent organisation for co-ordination and networking of CBR and disability organisations in Nepal and in this way, is reaching out to other programmes within and outside Nepal. One of the network members is the CBRS programme in Pokhara, which is also part of the Bhimad programme network.

The two programmes share a number of common features, which seem to be essential for their success and, therefore, can provide an important lesson for others. Children under the Bhimad and Bhaktapur programmes stay at home with their families. Some of the children attend special day classes but most are integrated in ordinary schools with follow-up support from the programmes. Parents' collaboration is considered very important in planning and implementing the education related programmes. For the sustainability of the programme, medical and rehabilitation support is sought with the local health facilities, community resources, and NGOs. Flexibility and adjustment of education programmes are applied to meet the needs and possibilities of each child and family. Local ownership and support are constantly sought to reinforce the sustainability of the programme, through VDCs and District Child Welfare Boards. While the initiative for development of the programmes come from a number of dedicated individuals working together, the key to sustainability seems to be empowerment of the concerned people involved. Rather than cursing the darkness it is wiser to burn the candle. Disabled children can live a full and active life only when we assimilate them in the family, the society and the nation.

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