Dear Editor,

According to the Kaieteur News of December 1, the Minister of Health says that a disability law is to be introduced next month following repeated calls by persons with disabilities for legislation to be enacted to defend their rights.

We need a new framework of government which recognises frankly that it is the duty of the state to intervene actively in the affairs of its people with a view to guaranteeing those of them with disabilities some minimum level of protection to enable them to have a fairly equal chance of developing their potential to the fullest. I agree with Chairman of the Guyana Council of Organizations for Persons with Disabilities, Mr Leon Walcott, that the organisation does not want promises, but action. He explained that despite government’s best efforts to assist persons with disabilities, the administration is still “handicapping” them by not passing the bill. The constitution must do more than merely reproduce the classical rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities. The constitution must balance those rights by speaking now of the social and economic rights of those with disabilities, such as the right to education, to work, to housing, to medical care. But correspondingly, the constitution must say something of the duty of the disabled to society and the state; the duty of the individual to contribute to society, to work for society. I happened to travel from Kayman Sankar airstrip at Hampton Court on the Essequibo Coast to Georgetown. It is undignified for me to beg friends to help me board the aircraft and an injustice to take my money without any proper service and accommodation. People need to be aware and fully understand the issues that persons with disabilities face daily in their lives.

Transportation services should be made available for disabled persons on the Essequibo Coast, and a clinic day identified, so they do not have to join the long lines at the Suddie Hospital. In addition, a physiotherapy department should be established at Anna Regina.

Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan