Disabled people gather to protest living conditions and budget cuts in several cities
A number of people with disabilities gathered in Tehran and other cities on Saturday, December 4, to protest the living conditions and the reduction in the share of the Disabled Protection Law from next year's national budget.
According to photos posted on social media, a number of these people gathered in front of the Planning and Budget Organization in Tehran, holding banners, demanding the implementation of the Disabled Persons' Law.
Meanwhile, reports of similar protest rallies in other cities have also been published, including in front of the Khorasan Razavi Governorate in Mashhad.
Creating job opportunities for people with disabilities by allocating at least three percent of employment permits from government and public agencies, standardizing buildings and public places for disabled people, and providing health and supplementary insurance are among the items in the 16-article law protecting the rights of people with disabilities in Iran, which was promulgated by the 12th government in May 2018.
However, many organizations and advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have criticized the failure to implement the provisions of this law and the inattention of the authorities in recent years.
Meanwhile, what is being protested by the Iranian disabled community recently is the reduction in the share of the law protecting the rights of the disabled from next year's budget. The budget specifically allocated to implementing this law in 1400 was 2 trillion tomans, but in next year's budget bill, this figure has been reduced by 130 billion tomans.
These protest rallies on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities are taking place at a time when the cancellation of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities ceremony, which was scheduled to be held on Friday, December 12, with the presence of Ebrahim Raisi and one hundred disabled people from all over Iran at the Summit Hall in Tehran, had caused confusion among the guests.
The ceremony was canceled "without prior notice," and after the government was criticized for this, Ebrahim Raisi held a meeting with a group of managers of disability associations at night; however, according to the "Disability Campaign" Twitter account, "no explanation" was given at the meeting about the reason for the cancellation of the Friday morning ceremony.
This account, which covers news and developments related to people with disabilities on Twitter, had protested in a tweet against Ebrahim Raisi's "ignorance" towards people with disabilities on International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, the campaign for the disabled, referring to the consequences of the coronavirus for people with disabilities, said that the budget allocated next year is in no way consistent with economic inflation and the real needs of people with disabilities.
The statement also criticized the "pompous slogans of the election period" and stated that the government and parliament have no plan to change the current chaotic situation and fulfill the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Different statistics have been published about the number of people with disabilities in Iran.
According to the latest statistics from the Welfare Organization, more than 1.71 million disabled people in Iran have a case file, but Homayoun Hashemi, a member of the Iranian parliament, said in 2018 that there are 10 million disabled people in Iran, of which four million have severe or very severe disabilities.
Source: Radio Farda
