People’s behaviour towards special persons in developing countries

People’s behaviour towards special persons in developing countries

There are a large and growing number of persons with disabilities in the world today. According to the United Nations organization, around 10 percent of the world’s population, or 650 million people are living with different kinds of disability, a world’s largest minority and Eighty percent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries. In this situation, People’s behaviour, awareness and understanding towards disability plays an important role in promoting education, employment and uplifting of persons with special needs but unfortunately, in developing societies, their condition is further exacerbated by faulty family and community attitudes and behaviours.

For many children, the presence of an impairment leads to rejection or isolation from experiences that are part of normal life during the critical years when children's personalities and self-images are developing. In Third World States, people have very discouraging or may be sympathetic attitudes regarding disable persons and they are behaved like a different creature. For last few decades, things began to change. Institutes for special education have been developed, NGOs have been established, and quota in government jobs has been defined but it’s not the case with rural areas. Children’s disability can bring embarrassment to their families there, consequently, most parents in these societies hide their children from public, deny them access to social life and education. A large percentage of special persons are uneducated as well as unemployed. They are being rejected from the main stream.

Inefficient governmental policies, illiteracy, unawareness and lack of opportunities for the disable to improve his/her abilities are responsible for such kind of problems. There is a greater need for awareness in local areas on the importance of accepting children with disabilities and how to include them in all activities in the communities and their right to an education. Parents, teachers and government must be encouraged and supported with resources to take an active role in the education of disabled children. Parents with positive and caring attitudes are usually the most successful and often the most influential parents. It is parents with this kind of attitudes that will help the disabled children to do well academically at school and be useful and active members of the society.