To require the educational institutes to accept the raising number of children with autism and other disabilities, the government Tuesday tabled a fresh law in parliament proposing equal opportunities for children with autism and other physical challenges and other children at all levels of education.
Social Welfare Minister Enamul Haque Mostafa Shahid tabled the “Protection and Preservation of the Rights of the Disabled Persons Bill-2013” in the House aiming to protect the rights of all persons with disability at every level of life and state.
The disabilities include autism, physical disability, mental illness leading to disability, visual disability, speech disability, intellectual disability, hearing disability, blindness, cerebral palsy and multiple disability.
According to the bill, they will get all facilities and opportunities such as legal recognition, individual freedom, access to justice and information, health, education and others like any other citizen.
Experts say parents having children with autism face huge problems in getting their children admitted to schools alongside other children. School authorities often reject the students, though their conditions are likely to improve by interactions with other children.
No studies have been carried out to find the number of children with autism in Bangladesh.
The Autistic Children’s Welfare Foundation says up to six out of every 1,000 children are affected with autism. It estimates that the number of children with autism in Bangladesh is around 300,000. Boys are four times more likely to have autism than girls.
The bill went to the parliamentary standing committee on social welfare for further review before passage in the next session of the House.
The draft law proposed formation of a 28-member high-powered national committee, headed by the social welfare minister, to oversee the implementation of the law. Similarly, each of the upzilas will have separate committees to protect the rights of people with disabilities.
Anyone standing in the way of the legal rights of the people with disabilities will face three years in jail and a financial punishment of Tk500,000, according to the bill.