International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2018

It’s unfortunate that I can’t physically see the world around me, but I always find a great comfort in the thought that the world is seeing me leading a meaningful life everyday. The painful experience of having to lose sight at the age of 9 and the ensuing years of hardships and struggle added a new meaning to my life and shaped my future. Among all the factors that have played a part in making me who I am today, I should say that education was the most important tool that actually crafted my destiny. Had I not been given the opportunity to go to school, I can’t even imagine how pathetic and painful my life would have been today. It is education that has widened my horizons and unlocked my door to independence and freedom. Today, the world sees me as a happily married man blest with a beautiful family and a successful career. But not all persons with disabilities are as fortunate and privileged as me. In many communities, disability is still seen as a major barrier to social inclusion and mass participation. As a result, there are many persons with disabilities who are still locked up in their homes, deprived of the right to participate in the mainstream social, economic, political and public life. If we can break all the social barriers and give them the voice they are entitled to, they would definitely be able to come out of their closets and contribute to nation-building. This was the gist of the theme for International Day of Persons with Disabilities observed throughout the world today.

Is he blind?

Some years ago, I was walking with my wife in the town when a passerby approached us and asked my wife "Is he blind?" My wife just smiled and said "Yes!". Then he began to ask her the entire history of how I lost my sight and what I am currently doing, and I was standing there listening to the conversation as though I was in the distance. He never talked to me directly. I felt quite awkward because he was talking about me just in front of me and I was there standing like a lifeless statue.

When I was not able to accept my disability

I was on my way back to school after my winter vacation. In Phuntsholing, we had to come to the bus terminal so early in the morning to catch the bus to Samdrup Jongkhar. During those days, we used to have 1st bus, 2nd bus and so on and I and my late father had got our tickets in the 2nd bus which would leave at around 5:30 am. It used to take more than 12 hours to reach the destination and hence, it was the longest and most tedious journey. So I and my late father checked out of our hotel-room at around 4:30 am in the morning and got to the bus station well ahead of the departure time.

Silent forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities inBhutan

In September 2011, I was in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, as part of the 3-member delegation from Bhutan representing Disabled Persons’ Association of Bhutan (DPAB) in the first ever South Asian Disability Forum which was held from 19-21 Sept., 2011. On behalf of the team, I was given the opportunity to do a 10-minute presentation on the general living conditions of persons with disabilities in Bhutan. As I pulled the audience through my PowerPoint slides, I talked about how people with disabilities in Bhutan enjoy equal rights and justice in all aspects of life. I even cited the example of how the Royal Government of Bhutan provides equal opportunities to persons with disabilities for employment and scholarships as long as they are capable of competing with their non-disabled counterparts. I further justified this statement by saying that Bhutan is a close-knit society founded on basic Buddhist principles and philosophies because of which people in general are sympathetic and compassionate towards persons with disabilities, and hence, there is no noticeable social discrimination against them.