RIGHTS!

Health official bemoan violation of disability rights in Gambia

Mamadou Edrisa Njie, Publisher of Mansa Banko was there

Given the provisions of the 1997 Constitution of The Republic of The Gambia, section 31 clearly states that persons living with disabilities (PLWD) “shall not be discriminated against”.

However, the Disability Desk Officer at the department of state for health and social welfare, on Tuesday laments the numerous violations of the rights of PLWD in the Gambia, at the opening of two-day “training for Gambian journalists on disability reporting”.

“Despite the constitutional provision of rights, it is disheartening to see that the rights of persons living with disabilities are violated every day, be it Gambians or non-Gambians,” Mr. Sainey Camara said on behalf of the Director of Social Welfare.

Disability Background in The Gambia

National Policies in their earlier versions paid only superficial attention to the concerns and needs of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs)

There is limited up to date statistics on disability prevalence in The Gambia. However, applying the global estimate that 10 percent of the population in any country are Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) at any given time indicates that there are about 150, 000 PWDs (10 percent of 1.5million) in the country.

Taking an average of 22 per 1000 (16 per 1000 from the 1998 National Disability Survey and 28 per1000 from the 2003 National Population Census), the number of PWDs in The Gambia would be approximately 33, 000, The Voice Newspaper’s Mafugi Ceesay reports on the prevalence of disability as per the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) Disability Guide 2010.

The magnitude of disability is a growing phenomenon in The Gambia noting the prevalence rate of 16 per thousand (1.6 percent) of the population, according to the figures of 1998 national disability survey, compared to 28 per thousand (2.8 percent) of the population from the National Population and Housing Census of April 2003. The gender differentials for males and females for the 1998 survey was 17.4 and 13.9 per 1000 respectively.