Disabled people gather in front of the Planning and Budget Organization
On the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a group of thirty people with disabilities gathered in front of the Planning and Budget Organization to protest the failure to implement the Disability Law and the non-payment of the relevant budget. The main demand: securing the current year's budget, increasing the 2019 budget.
December 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities; a day when government officials are called upon to comply with the provisions of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to ensure the needs of the disabled community. On this day, a group of citizens with disabilities gathered in front of the Planning and Budget Organization to protest the non-implementation of the Comprehensive Law on Persons with Disabilities and the delay in disbursing the approved budget.
According to information received by Deutsche Welle, the Social Affairs Office of the Planning and Budget Department and one of the general managers of this organization have noted the protesters' requests and promised to follow up.
These requests include full payment of the budget for the Disabled Protection Law, a serious increase in appropriations in the 2019 budget bill, and a meeting with Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, head of the Planning and Budget Organization, to be informed of the problems and needs of disabled people before submitting the upcoming budget bill to the parliament.
The protesters also called on the advisor to the Minister of Health to provide funding for Article 6 of the law. According to this article, people under the care of disabled people must be covered by health insurance upon introduction to the country's welfare organization, and disabled people must also be covered by health insurance and supplementary insurance.
The Comprehensive Law for the Protection of Persons with Disabilities was passed in March 2017 and notified to the relevant agencies on May 28, 2018. This law includes points such as adaptation, accessibility, movement and mobility, health, medical and rehabilitation services, sports, cultural, artistic and educational affairs, entrepreneurship and employment, housing, culture and raising public awareness, judicial support and tax facilities, livelihood and administrative and employment support, and planning, supervision and financial resources.
After 18 months of the law being promulgated, the agencies responsible for its implementation have not fulfilled their obligations due to lack of funding. The actual budget required to implement the law was 20 trillion tomans, which eventually reached 1,100 billion tomans, but after 9 months of the year, only one-sixth of it has been paid.
The relevant budget is provided by the Planning and Budget Organization, and the Welfare Organization, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the Ministry of Labor, Cooperatives and Welfare, and the Ministry of Science are the executors and custodians of the law.
There are no statistics on the population of people with disabilities in Iran, but the names of 1.5 million people are registered with the Welfare Organization under this title. The Welfare Organization says that 39% of this number are physically and motorically disabled. The blind make up 11% and the deaf make up 13% of this population.
Source: DW
