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Living with disability and disaster

Mahbuba Nasreen
THE theme of the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR), 2013 is 'Living with Disability and Disaster.' Linking disability with disaster deserves attention as about 15% of the people around the world are living with disabilities. The number of persons with disability may increase with the potential risk related to increase of climate and human induced disasters, different kinds of accidents causing injuries, increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides etc. Data show that cyclones Sidr and Aila (1991, 2007) in Bangladesh and Hurricane Katrina (2005) in LISA caused death mostly for people with disabilities and the elderly. Disaster risk reduction effort thus should focus on disability and thereby include them in the development agenda.
In Bangladesh disability has been included in the national census since eighties. However, the reported prevalence rates between 7 percent and 4.7 percent are far below the international and national estimates. A survey on prevalence of disability in 1994 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows a rate of only 1.62 percent. According to the recent World Report on Disability (2011), WHO and World Bank estimated the rate of people with disability as 15%. However, there is great variation in the statistics on the numbers and types of disabilities in Bangladesh, and in part this may be due to the social stigmatization of the disabled in the country. They are often just not 'recognized' and become excluded.
Since last four years the Government of Bangladesh has been giving special emphasis on the issues of disability devising policies and legislation accordingly. The Sixth Five Year Plan and various policies, programmes of different ministries, for example, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Education and few others have been giving special attentions to the people and Children with Disability. Disaster related disabilities have been getting much more priorities in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief since 2012. The Disaster Management Act, National Plan for Disaster Management and other policies have included the social exclusion issues in context of mainstreaming disaster risk
reduction. One may observe the steps of the Government of Bangladesh in bringing back hopes of the disaster victims of recent garment factories through providing various supports, especially to the survivors with disability. National and International partners are joining hands with the Government initiatives.
It must be mentioned here that any disaster may make people injured for which preparedness is an utmost requirement. To avoid happening disaster related disabilities attentions must be given on devising legislation, policies, recovers; rehabilitation and reconstruction. Mass awareness through different media including Government machineries should be the tool for making any effort successful. The cyclone of 1991 has made nearly half a million of people injured including making some of them disable. A study (Nasreen, 2008) indicates that violation of the rights of women and girls make their lives precarious during different phases of disaster.
Any effort related to Disaster Risk Reduction must be inclusive as the world's more than 1 billion people that comprise about 15 per cent of the global population are living with disabilities and the number is expected to rise because of factors such as ageing populations, increasing potential for accidents, and the predicted rise in hazards and disasters. In any disaster, mortality is much higher among the disabled than any other group. Most of those who died in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in LISA were people with disabilities and seniors. Again, disability-inclusive DRR can facilitate a wonderful opportunity for them to make contribution to socio-economic development of the country.
Including the needs and voices of persons with disabilities in disaster management can significantly reduce their vulnerabilities and increase the effectiveness of the government response and recovery efforts. Otherwise, the consequences would be many including their lives lost, further injury causing deterioration of their health, and extra stress on already stretched health resources. But most of the governments and their related agencies still couldn't adequately plan for them in their disaster managementactivities.