Ignoring SRHR for disabled people puts them at great risk

The concept of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights is applied to fields of sexuality, reproductive system, and health for men, women and children. Bangladesh, being a developing country, still has requirements such as education, food and shelter that are insufficient. The issues with human sexuality is both taboo, and the importance of it falls at the bottom of priorities.

In Bangladesh, there is no specific data on the number of disabled people in the country and some results say that it is in between 9 to 16 percent. Further research shows that 50 percent women with disabilities had never married, 72 percent lived with their parents or a sibling and 40 percent reported sometimes being mistreated by their families.

Even though the Government of Bangladesh has already taken some legislative steps towards improving situation of the disable people, there are many gaps in policies and law.

CREA, in association with ASEAN Disability Forum (ADF) has been advocating for disabled people’s SRHR rights since the year 2015 and have released various publications on the said topic.

One recent study estimated, persons with disabilities have 130 percent more chance of being a victim of violence, mostly domestic violence and sexual violence, than persons without disabilities.

The fact that disabled people (and their families) very often do not attribute SRHR to be a basic need is a problem. Further, challenges persist because of the stigma and discrimination, lack of social attention, legal protection, accessibility of services, understanding and support for this group.

This article was written by Syeda Samsara Mortada, and reproduced by Share-net Bangladesh.
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