Diabled praise govt

 By JENNIFER NKUI

CABINET’S work on a social security policy to address welfare issues and constraints faced by people with disability and the elderly has been applauded. 

The National Capital District people with disability, on behalf of the disabled population, has congratulated Cabinet for the policy.

The organisation wanted to thank the government for fast-tracking and ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in September last year.

Benson Tegia, from the NCD Disabled Persons’ Organisation (NCDPO), said such an achievement was a milestone for the country, especially for the benefit of the disabled who had been forgotten for too long by successive governments.

“The SSP is already trying to answer some of the compliance issues, including specific articles of the convention and for that we commend the government for heading in the right direction to implementing the UNCRPD,” he said.

“However, the SSP policy is best left to people with disability to dictate because they know how it can be properly designed and implemented to suit their needs. 

“Such a policy must be engineered by disabled people with a backdrop of experiencing various specialised issues affecting different categories of persons with disabilities.

“It must be managed and driven by disabled people as it will allow us to speak and sound the language within us that we understand and accept in our world.”

According to NCDDPO, it has been a year since the Department of Community Development was tasked with the priority to put together the implementation policy for SSP.

The organisation is concerned that it has not been consulted.

“PNGADP has yet to consult us even on the framework and timeline of SSP,” Tegia said.

“Persons with disabilities are the ultimate reasons for the government undertaking the SSP.

“No PWDs’ participation means SSP will be a definite failure, costing the government fortunes for all the wrong reasons.”