A National Overview of the Disability Situation

Although there are no specific provisions protecting rights ofpersons with disabilities in the Republican Constitution of Malawi, these are protected by other provisions nevertheless. The provision on equality in Section 20, for instance, demands that there shall be no discrimination on any grounds including disability. In Section 13(g) of the Constitution, the state makes a commitment to support the disabled through (a) greater access to public places, (b) fair opportunities in employment and (c) the fullest possible participation in all spheres of Malawian society.

The 1998 Population and Housing Census conducted by National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that the country’s total population with disabilities is 4.2 percent.  It further revealed that 54 percent are males while females make up 46 percent.  The rural-urban distribution of the disabled population is 3 percent for rural areas and 2 percent for urban.  The disability population was distributed as follows: 18.2 percent for physical disability; 20.5 percent for visually impaired; 8.5 percent for intellectually impaired; 13.3 percent for impaired hearing; 18.8 percent for epilepsy; 4.5 percent for asthma; 16.2 percent account for other disabilities.

According to the census, 42 percent of the population with disabilities is at school going age, between the ages 5 – 13 years, but only 37 percent of the children with disabilities at school going age were enrolled in 1998 compared to 78 percent national enrollment rate.

Despite being theoretically entitled to all human rights, persons with disabilities in the country are still, in practice, denied those basic rights and fundamental freedoms that most people take for granted. A study conducted in 2004 by the University of Malawi’s Centre for Social Research (CSR) entitled “Living Conditions ofpersons with disabilities in Malawi” revealed that many persons with disabilities are denied their right to information which puts then at risk to HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, increased poverty, just to mention a few.

For instance, in 2005, physiotherapist Rachel Gondwe remarked: “yet we feel that many of these people are denied access to information on HIV/AIDS because society has failed to meet their needs.” She made the remarks in the report entitled “Effective HIV/Aids and Reproductive Health Information for Persons with Disabilities” which CSR conducted in collaboration with the Federation for Disability Organisations in Malawi (Fedoma).

The report says it is well established that some persons with disabilities need to use alternative forms of communication other than the mainstream such as sign language, Braille, signs, symbols and pictures or computers with speech and Braille facilities. However many of these methods have not been adopted by stakeholders.

So what is it that Government and other stakeholder must do to address challenges in information dissemination for person with disabilities? That is one critical question we attempt to answer next week.