BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

--- An Interview with Shen Zhifei, deputy general director of the China Disabled Persons's Federation

Shen Zhifei, deputy general director of the China Disabled Person's Federation

Editor's note: There are about 83 million disabled people in China, accounting for 6.34% of the total population, according to a national survey in 2006. As a disadvantaged group, the rights and interests of the disabled are arousing more concerns from all walks of society in the country. Following is Human Rights's interview with Shen Zhifei, deputy general director of the China Disabled Persons's Federation, on the legal guarantee of the special group's rights and interests, their rehabilitation, education and employment.

Q: China sees legal guarantee as an important part in safeguarding the rights of handicapped people. What efforts has China made in recent years in legislation, law execution and judicature to guarantee the rights of the group?

A:There are currently more than 50 laws concerning the rights and interests of disabled people in China. In addition, there are special laws and regulations that safeguard the rights of them, such as the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, Regulations on the Education of Disabled Persons, and Regulations on the Employment of Disabled Persons. All provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have also enacted detailed regulations on the implementation of the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons on their own. These laws and regulations form a system to safeguard the rights of the disabled.

   Legislatures, political advisory bodies and handicapped people's working committees at all levels are playing their due role to supervise the implementation of the laws and regulations concerning the rights of the disabled by launching routine or special inspections to spot problems and difficulties in law enforcement and submitting proposals and suggestions for revision and improvement. In 2006, lawmakers at county level and above conducted 1,301 examinations on the implementation of related laws and ordinances, political advisors at the same levels made 1,192 inspections and the disabled people's working committees launched 1,979 special campaigns to check the enforcement of related laws.

   The country is also gradually establishing a system of legal service and assistance for disabled people that involves courts, judicatory departments, handicapped people's federations and administrative departments at all levels. Under such a system, poor handicapped people can be exempted from legal fare or have it abated, and they can enjoy preferential service at lawyers?offices and notary offices. By the end of 2006, judicatory departments at county level and above have set up 2,279 legal assistance/service centers for handicapped people. The centers handled 19,582 cases in 2006. Such a legal aid system has helped ease the difficulties for disabled people in seeking and paying for legal service.

Deng Pufang, chairman of the China Disabled Person's Feberation, at the conferring ceremony of the UN human rights awards

  Q: How does China guarantee the political rights of the disabled persons?

  A: More and more handicapped people and their relatives have entered the People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), legislative and political advisory bodies, at all levels. In 2006, 1,078 seats of legislatures at county level and above were occupied by disabled persons, their relatives and workers for handicapped people's affairs, and 2,169 equivalents entered CPPCC committees at the same levels. They have become important participants in the country's political life, representing the 83 million disabled persons in the country.

  Q: China is actively promoting wheelchair accessible facilities. What's the latest development?

  A: The China Disabled Persons?Federation, the Ministry of Construction and other ministries and departments have jointly issued regulations that order the construction of wheelchair accessible facilities in urban roads, buildings, railway stations and schools to make things convenient for handicapped people to be integrated into social life. In 2004, 12 cities were honored as models for the construction of wheelchair accessible facilities. In the period between 2006 and 2010, 100 cities will be added to the model list.

  At the same time, the country is also improving information access for the disabled by promoting the use of captions in TV news, films and TV soap operas and encouraging finger language programs among TV program producers. The country also encourages video information displays, finger language services or writing communication aid for deaf people in major public places.      

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, a dancing performance by China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe

  Q: China has set a goal to provide rehabilitation service to every disabled person. What achievements has it made and what challenges does it face to hit the goal?

  A: The country has planned to provide rehabilitation services to every person with disabilities by 2015. Before that, our goal is to make rehabilitation services accessible to almost all disabled people in cities and comparatively developed rural areas, and to the 70% disabled people in underdeveloped rural areas by 2010.

  After decades of efforts, more than 13 million disabled people have received rehabilitation treatment. Now the country is improving the work by expanding rehabilitation services, training more experts in this field and improving community medical services. The work is also being strengthened by the funding from the commonweal lottery program, the establishment of a new rural medicare cooperative scheme and the adoption of medical assistance policies in urban and rural areas.

  However, we also face grave challenges in hitting the goal. According to the survey in 2006, there is still a great gap between the status quo of the rehabilitation work and the demand on it from disabled people. While about 28% of respondents in the survey say they need rehabilitation service and 39% need assistant tools, only 8.45% actually have received such services and 7.31% have enjoyed such aid.

  And about 75% of the disabled people live in the countryside, usually economically underdeveloped areas, posing a greater challenge to the rehabilitation goal. As the average per capita income of families with disabled members is less than half of the national average level, poverty remains a major obstacle to rehabilitation access. A survey in Beijing, Sichuan and Henan in 2006 shows that about 33% mentally disabled and 61% with mental illnesses needed rehabilitation but could not afford the cost. In addition, 43% people with hearing difficulties and 31% people with speaking difficulties needed but could not afford assistant tools.

So, we have to continue to shore up the funding for the work, improve the services and seeking an effective mechanism to cover all the disabled under the net of rehabilitation.

Receiving rehabilitation treatment

Q: What has China done to guarantee the rights of disabled people for education?

  A: China has established a special education system for the disabled that covers primary education, vocational education, higher education and adult education. The system has become an important part of the country's educational development.

  The rights for education of disabled people are under the protection of the Constitution, which is accordingly reflected in the Education Law, Compulsory Education Law, Vocational Education Law, Higher Education Law and Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons. In 1994, the State Council enacted the Regulations on the Education of Disabled Persons, providing a special guarantee for disabled people to enjoy rights for education.

  Education for disabled people is part of the overall planning of the development of the cause of the special group. Since 1988, the country has held three special national conferences, mapping the development of the welfare of disabled people, including their education.

In 1989, the government established a central subsidy fund for special education, injecting 23 million yuan (US$3.2 million) annually for the compulsory education of disabled children. The annual fund has been raised to 27.2 million yuan since 2001. Totally, about 550 million yuan had been used by 2006. At the same time, most provincial, municipal and autonomous regional governments also established similar funds.

  Disabled children are also covered by the national school fee exemption scheme and education assistance programs like the Hope Project and Spring Buds Project. The China Disabled Persons?Federation and the Ministry of Education also jointly launched some special education assistance programs, injecting about 150 million yuan to help 90,000 disabled students and subsidize 18 special senior high schools or classes and one special college.

Working at a garment factory

  Q: What are the regulations that promote compulsory education for disabled children at school age?

  A: The Compulsory Education Law, which was revised in 2006, has detailed regulations on compulsory education for disabled children. It stipulates that governments at county levels and above are responsible for establishing special schools or classes and ordinary schools are obliged to accept disabled children who can receive ordinary education and provide assistance for their study and rehabilitation. Schools that refuse to accept disabled children capable of receiving general education might be punished by law. The law also regulates that teachers at special schools can enjoy special allowances and the per capita outlay for public use on special school budgets should be higher than that of ordinary schools.

  Q: What special policies has China adopted to guarantee disabled people's equal rights for employment?

A: The improvement of living conditions and equal participation into social life will become a castle in the air if disabled people have no employment opportunities. Disabled people are usually disadvantaged in fierce competition in the job market. Their rights for employment, however, are protected by the Constitution and corresponding laws. The State Council in May 2007 enacted the Regulations on the Employment of Disabled Persons to promote equal employment rights for the group.

 The government has also adopted a series of preferential policies, such as in taxation and administrative approval, for businesses operated by or employing disabled people. Self-employed disabled people will also be subsidized if they buy endowment insurances.

In addition, the China Disabled Persons?Federation and related governmental departments are making feasibility studies to set up rest homes where the mentally disabled and people with mental illnesses and serious disabilities can receive labor skill training.

  While competition has become inevitable in the job market, the Chinese government is also adopting protective measures to ensure more disabled people are employed, taking the employment of disabled people as a common responsibility of both the government and society.

Under the protection of special policies, the massage businesses of blind people have seen robust growth. By 2006, nearly 100,000 blind people were working at about 10,000 massage service businesses.

  Statistics show that nearly 30% of employed disabled people work at governmental departments, enterprises, education and health care sectors. And more of them are working in the fields of science and technology research and cultural sectors.

  More than 3,000 employment service networks for disabled people have been established at provincial, city and county levels, which cover both urban and rural areas.

Speaking training for deaf children

Q: What measures has China taken to alleviate poverty of the disabled population? What will the country do in this respect in the following years?

  A: Disabled persons occupy an important position in the national plan of poverty alleviation. In the five years from 2001 to 2005, the central government earmarked 4 billion yuan of loan for rehabilitation and poverty reduction, benefiting 1.25 million disabled people. Local governments also raised 720 million yuan for the work. And 8.21 million poor disabled people received agricultural technology training. As housing problems have become a major obstacle in poverty alleviation for disabled people, the State Council decided to earmark, since 2003, a special fund from the commonweal lottery program to help improve their housing conditions. The fund has been used to revamp the houses of more than 50,000 families, benefiting nearly 64,000 disabled people.

  The service system for rural disabled people is also being improved. The country established 1,887 county level and 18,979 township level service centers for disabled people in the five years, which have provided organizational guarantee for poverty reduction of disabled people.

  The national poverty alleviation campaign has benefited nearly 12 million rural people with disabilities, but there are still 8.7 million who have basic subsistence difficulties. According to our plan for the period between 2006 and 2010, we will help 10 million more rural disabled people out of feeding and clothing difficulties. And for those who have had no basic subsistence problems, we will help them gradually raise their economic gains. We will cover one million rural disabled people in central and western regions under the farming technology training program and revamp houses for 320,000 rural families with disabled members.

  We will make continuous efforts to seek new measures for poverty alleviation of disabled people and contribute to the national drive of building a harmonious society. 

A class of blind students