The term disability covers impairments, limited activities, and restrictions in participating in day-to-day life. It includes seeing, hearing, speaking, mobility, learning, and behavioral difficulties experienced by any individual. WHO states that 1 in every 6 individuals is experiencing disability (Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities, 2022). Being a large proportion of the population, they stand isolated without being included in the mainstream. People with disabilities are leading lives full of miseries while being discriminated against, maltreated, and isolated. They are more likely to remain deprived of their basic literacy skills; hence, their illiteracy rates are higher than others. Their growth is stagnated with fewer employment opportunities. Their human rights are witnessed to be violated when we see that they do not have access to an adequate health care system.
Although the United Nations is committed to creating an inclusive environment for every section of society. The sustainable development goals set by the UN are centered on the idea of leaving no one behind. Despite that, the world is severely off track to realize the 2030 agenda of sustainable development, as pointed out by the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024. Out of a total of 169 targets, the data pertaining to 34 targets is not available; hence, the latter targets cannot be assessed. Out of assessable targets, only 17% of targets are found to be on the track of progress (Sustainable Development Goals Report, 2024). We have moved in reverse direction on more than 30% of goals. The discussions over creating an inclusive environment for persons with disabilities depict terrifying images. Although disability is included in the sphere of sustainable development goals, it is noted that only 7 out of a total of 169 targets address the subject of disability inclusion (Modeer, U., Viera, J., 2023).
The goal of global health seems out of question after watching the declining health care system. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc to global health. The current trends have affected global health to the extent that 2030 targets seem unachievable. It is pointed out in the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 that more than half of the population is deprived of the essential health services. Health coverage is even poor in the rural areas and among the poor population at the global level. If we compare low-income and high-income countries, then as per 10,000 persons, low-income countries had a median of only 1.1 doctors, and high-income countries had 35.6 doctors. Persons with disabilities are more vulnerable becausehealth care is found to be inaccessible for them as compared to the non-disabled ones. It is seen that they have the chance to die earlier than the regular persons due to their health complications and other environmental barriers. Persons with disabilities have twice the risk of developing conditions such as depression, asthma, diabetes, stroke, obesity, or poor oral health (Disability, 2023). They are more exposed to various communicable and non-communicable diseases due to health inequities. The conditions such as tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, or cardiovascular problems are more likely to be found in persons with disabilities. They are even at more risk of getting mental health conditions than the non-disabled ones (Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities, 2022).
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 also brings attention to the major challenges that are restricting the educational opportunities for children in the global sphere. Lack of adequate educational infrastructure and appropriate teacher training programs are counted among the major educational constraints that block educational progress at the global level. Accessible and inclusive education can accelerate the progress towards creating equitable educational opportunities for children. The report points out the fact that the global educational goals could only be realized if countries start admitting a new child every two seconds till the year 2030 (Sustainable Development Goals Report, 2024). Under such circumstances, education for persons with disabilities comes as a challenge.The 4th goal of sustainable development highlights the concern for inclusive education for all, but persons with disabilities remain one among various groups that stand excluded when it comes to availing educational opportunities.Even the data exploring the links between disability and education remains scarce. This further exacerbates the problem of educational marginalization for persons with disabilities. The analysis made under the study named ‘Education and Disability: Analysis of Data from 49 Countries’ conducted by UNESCO explores the educational challenges of persons with disabilities. They are less likely to attend schools and more likely to remain deprived of basic literacy skills. The large gaps are found among the students with disabilities and those without, who don’t attend educational institutes. Huge gaps were noticed while locating the children with disabilities who were out of school as compared to the children without disabilities. In the case of Cambodia, 1 in every 2 children with disabilities remain out of school as compared to 1 in every 14 other children. Hence,their literacy rate also seems to be lower as compared to others (Education and Disability: Analysis of Data from 49 Countries, 2018).
Another goal of elevating poverty and achieving economic progress is on the decline. The employment rates have lowered post the pandemic in 2019. On the other hand, rates of employment in the informal sector are higher, and more than 2 billion workers are working without legal protections in informal sectors (Sustainable Development Goals Report, 2024). When it comes to persons with disabilities, they face the problems of even lesser employment opportunities and lower rates of wages. Lack of education and skill development is not solely affecting their employment rates; rather, disparities are driven by a lack of an accommodating environment at the workplaces, lower job flexibility, and various other discriminatory practices (Ananian, S., Dellaferrera, G., 2024).
In conclusion, persons with disabilities are one of the most marginalized sections of society that confront various roadblocks in their way forward. Moreover, there is a lack of data pertaining to disabilities, which assures their invisibility. Due to the latter reason, their issues largely stand ignored by the policymaker. Hence, more intensified global efforts need to be undertaken to bring the persons with disabilities into the mainstream. The global goals could only be accomplished by creating an inclusive environment for all.
