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By Joyce Mukucha
An estimated 240 million children globally are suffering from various disabilities, and experience deprivation in indicators such as health, education and protection.
This is according to a new report released by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday.
The report includes comparable data from 42 countries and covers more than 60 indicators of child well-being from nutrition and health, to access to water and sanitation, protection from violence and exploitation, and education.
These indicators are disaggregated by functional difficulty type and severity, child’s sex, economic status, and country.
Ms Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s Executive Director, said the new research confirms what she already knew: children with disabilities face multiple and often compounding challenges, in simply realizing their rights.
“This new research confirms what we already knew: Children with disabilities face multiple and often compounding challenges in realizing their rights. From access to education, to being read to at home; children with disabilities are less likely to be included or heard on almost every measure. All too often, children with disabilities are simply being left behind,” said Ms Fore.
The report find out that access to education was one of several key areas affecting children with disabilities as it explored that children with disabilities are 24 per cent less likely to receive early stimulation and responsive care, and have 42 per cent fewer chances of achieving foundational reading and numeracy skills with the probability of never attending school being 49 per cent higher for them.
It figured out that despite widespread agreement on the importance of education, children with disabilities are still falling behind.
The report founs out that children with difficulty communicating and caring for themselves are the most likely to be out of school, regardless of education level.
“Out-of-school rates are higher among children with multiple disabilities and disparities become even more significant when the severity of the disability is taken into account,” said the report.
Pertaining health, the new report has it that 25 has a per cent greater chance of suffering from wasting, and 34 per cent greater chance of stunted development with 53 per cent more likely to have symptoms of acute respiratory infection.
These children, the report highlighted, are also 51 per cent more likely to feel unhappy day-to-day, and 41 per cent more likely to be discriminated against and the probability of experiencing severe corporal punishment being 32 per cent greater than for children without disability.
Against this background UNICEF called upon governments to provide children with disabilities with equal opportunities stressing that Member States should also consult persons with disabilities and consider the full range of disabilities, as well as the specific needs of children and their families, when providing inclusive services and equitable quality education.
“Governments must work together with persons with disabilities to eliminate the physical, communication and attitudinal barriers that keep them out of society, and ensure birth registration; inclusive health, nutrition, and water services; equitable education; and access to assistive technologies.
The report emphasised the need for governments to work towards eradication of stigma and discrimination across communities indicating that stigma may stop families asking for help or information, leaving them unaware of their rights or of any support that is available.
“Across Europe and Central Asia, children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to stigma and discrimination, and are often segregated. They may not appear in national statistics, becoming ‘invisible’ to decision makers, service providers and the public. Families may struggle to balance earning a living with caring for a child with disabilities — increasing the risk of institutionalization for the child.”
The analysis by UNICEF seeks to increase the inclusion of the one in 10 children and young people with disabilities worldwide by ensuring they are counted, consulted and considered in decision-making.
“Exclusion is often the consequence of invisibility. We have not had reliable data on the number of children with disabilities for the longest time. When we fail to count, consider and consult with these children, we are failing to help them reach their vast potential,” said Fore.
As a way of providing a solution, UNICEF upholds the rights of children with disabilities across Europe and Central Asia, from promoting their best possible care to supporting their education and participation.
“We support outreach services to families with young children to identify and respond to any disabilities at an early age, giving children a chance to reach their potential and keeping families together. Home-visiting programmes – an approach that spans child protection, health and nutrition and early childhood development – give families support and connect them to specialized services,” said UNICEF.
It highlighted that obstacles to learning and participation are not the ‘fault’ of a child’s impairment.
“We aim to make schools inclusive and child-focused, recognizing that the obstacles to learning and participation are not the ‘fault’ of a child’s impairment, but rather the capacity of schools to remove those obstacles.
“Our work with our partners has helped to increase the number of children with disabilities attending regular schools across the region. In Moldova, for example, the number of children with special educational needs in regular schools quadrupled between 2012 and 2015.
“In Armenia, we support inclusive education through cross-sectoral collaboration for children with disabilities.In Romania, the number of children with special educational needs in regular schools increased from 2 per cent in 2000 to 63 per cent in 2014.”
In Serbia, UNICEF supported a major expansion of the inclusive schools network.
The agency also tackles the discrimination that keeps children with disabilities isolated.
“UNICEF tackles the discrimination that keeps children with disabilities isolated, supporting training to change mind-sets and develop skills among medical staff, teachers, psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers, and working to change public attitudes towards disability.
“We support campaigns to raise awareness of the rights of children with disabilities. In Montenegro, we supported the ‘It’s about ability’ campaign, which increased public acceptance of the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular education from 33.5 per cent in 2010 to 80 per cent in 2013. Similar campaigns have changed attitudes in Bosnia and Hercegovina and Moldova.
“We work with the Government of Turkmenistan to boost investment for support systems for the families of children with disabilities. Early childhood development Specialists from education and health sectors and non-governmental organizations have had intensive training on early intervention.”
In Turkey, UNICEF supports outreach teams that identify highly vulnerable families who are eligible for emergency cash support and link children with disabilities to specialized services.
It also work with disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) through the EU-UNICEF partnership on Violence against Children and Social Inclusion of Children with Disabilities, in cooperation with the European Disability Forum.
