LIFE WITH A DISABILITY AND VISION
Krishna Bahadur Sunar (Mr.)
National
Association of the Physical Disabled-Nepal [NAPD-Nepla], Jwagal-10, Lalitpur
Nepal
Though
I am a human being, the society ill-treats me as inhuman being blaming untouchable
and so-called lower caste; behaves as unproductive parasitic individual
accusing me the consequences of early birth's sin looking at my disability have
motivated me to continuously fight for changing their attitudes till the
society absolutely becomes friendlier to us. Hence, I believe in change.
This
is me Krishna Bahadur Sunar. But, I am most popularly recognized as "Krishna
Gahatraj". I was born in March 04, 1985 in the remotest villages of the
country. My hometown is at Phoolbari-9, Kailali district that lies in Far
Western Development Region of Nepal. It is 723 kilometer far from the capital
city i.e. Kathmandu of Nepal. It takes completely 17 to 18 hours by bus to
travel and approximately an hour by plane. I live in joint family with 16
members. My parents are illiterate and
they are farmers. Therefore, agriculture is my family's major source of income.
My native language is Nepali. But, I do speak, read and write both English and Hindi.
According
to the Nepal's caste based classification system, I belong to the Dalit community.
This is considered as so-called lower caste and treated as
"untouchable" in Nepal. Hence, they are socio-economically,
politically and culturally disadvantaged and state victimized community of the
country.
I
spent my childhood miserably as I was born in economically poor and
educationally illiterate family. Therefore, my childhood couldn't be as good as
others though I was born as normal child during birth. According to my parents,
my left leg has been partially paralyzed due to poliomyelitis at the age of
1& ½ years of old. This happened due to the lack of polio vaccine as my
parents did not take me to the hospital for vaccination due to shortage of
money. Since I do belong to the Dalit community and being physically disabled,
I have been facing double discriminations in the society since my childhood.
Therefore, I've been determinedly fighting for the emancipation from double
discriminations.
I
used to crawl like four footed animal for mobility for more than eight years of
old and, people used to laugh looking at me. Confining at a place, having
toilets within the house, spreading all over the body and giving a bad smell,
sometime, compelled me to curse myself looking the worst life. Therefore, I had
been their laughing catalyst initially. However, the love, inspiration and hope
of mother never get reduced to see me as change agent. And, therefore, I was
admitted to school nearer to my home quite late at the age of 8 years old. I
used to go to school and return back to home by sitting at the back of my parents'
body. Later on, I, gradually, began to walk with the support of a stick that
sparkle the rays of happiness in my life as that stick showed me the life and
future breaking the barriers and accelerating the independency.
I
did well in school education and, therefore, passed my School Leaving
Certificate (SLC) pursuing 1st division in June, 2003. After passing
SLC, it had been great challenging for me to go for higher education due to my
disability, caste and financial shortage reasoned I had to leave my village and
go for other places to pursue higher education. I went to my district headquarter
city – Dhangadhi of Kailali. But, I couldn't get an accessible rented
room due to my disability and caste. I and my whole family got frustrated and saddened
with such a societal inhuman behavior and practices. Fortunately, I got an
opportunity to come to Kathmandu – the capital city of Nepal for my
higher education with five years of scholarship provided by Nepal Youth
Foundation (NYF) – U.S. based organization (www.nepalyouthfoundation.org). With its support, I did my bachelor degree.
While
studying final year (Bachelor Degree), I got 8 month internship opportunity to
work with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) – UK based charitable organization.
It was my 1st step of career development to start working as a
development professional. While working with VSO, I had opportunities to work
closely with national level Dalit NGOs and Disabled People Organizations (DPOs)
who have been fighting since a long time for their basic human rights. I was
motivated to work with them as I do represent from both. Hence, I immediately,
after completion of my tenure with VSO in Nepal, began to work with National
Association of Persons with Physical Disabled-Nepal [NAPD-Nepal] as a volunteer
and program coordinator initially. Similarly, I did also work professionally
with Dalit NGO Federation – an umbrella organization of having more than 300
member organizations all over the country. In my five years of professional
work experience, I worked extensively with both DPO and as well as to the Dalit
NGO. Therefore, I did finally take decision to work actively for the rights of
persons with disabilities as a right activist. And, hence, I had been elected
as a Secretary in an executive board of NAPD-Nepal in 2013. Since then, I am
actively working as a disability right activist in Nepal.
One
of the most fortunate and co-incidence in my life is that I got an opportunity to
participate in 13 days International Study Program, which was my first international
visit as well, on "International Study Program on Global Challenges of
Youth with Disabilities" held on August 19 to 31, 2013 at Seoul, Korea
organized by Korean Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities
(KSRPD). This program, indeed, has impacted me quite a lot to broaden my
knowledge and understanding disability to enhance my leadership capacity for
our rights after coming back to my country. Since I was the only one and first
youth with disability to participate in this program from Nepal, I got an
opportunity to practically learn many positive deeds made by persons with
disabilities in South Korea. Therefore, the issues and experiences shared by
all 9 youth with disabilities from 9 different Asian Pacific countries along with
8 youth (with and without disabilities) from South Korea provided me an
opportunity to learn different issues of persons with disabilities including
youth with disabilities as well. The most important learning to me in South
Korea is that the persistent fighting of persons with disabilities right activists
towards bringing changes with great passion is highly commendable and replicable.
The joint efforts of persons with disabilities directly coordinating and
cooperating with non-disabled people organizations i.e. public private agencies
and business companies are entirely beneficial to them as exploring financial support
and creating specific employment opportunities. Since mobility is the preliminary
condition of persons with disabilities to increase their access in resources,
the construction of accessible environment everywhere as much as possible through
abolishing all kind of physical cum communication barriers is highly essential.
I found this highly improved in South Korean because of which many persons with
disabilities have been independent.
Though
bringing changes in the state policy, programs and system is not easier task, I
directly observed many things which have been possible in South Korea due to
the consequences of yearlong constant movement. And, I am greatly inspired with
all of their passion, commitment, determination and joint efforts amongst. These
practical learning and exposures compel me to think once again very seriously to
contribute myself more dynamically to bring a change in my country so that the
fundamental human rights of persons with disabilities are ensured, protected
and promoted by the state. With this principle, I began my journey to internalize
the issues of youth with disabilities primarily in the whole youth movement in
Nepal joining with a national level youth-led NGO called – Youth Advocacy Nepal
(www.yan.org.np) as a Vice-President. Moreover,
I'm also working as a Member Secretary of National Youth Policy Monitoring Youth
Committee [NYPMYC] where we closely monitor the implementation of national
youth policy from the perspectives of inclusion of all types of marginalized
and disadvantaged youth. In this one year, I've been successful to take lead
and mainstream the issues of youth with disabilities in overall youth movement
of Nepal. The Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) under Government of Nepal
(GoN) has recognized me as a potential youth with disability having an in-depth
knowledge on the issues. I am currently working with NAPD-Nepal as a Secretary
in an Executive Board in full time basis through which involving in
organizational activities and national movement. Instead of that, I am a part
time employee of International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR) in Nepal
where I'm working as a Program Coordinator (PC).
Among
the social, environmental, physical and attitudinal barriers of persons with
disabilities towards creating a fully inclusive society, attitudinal barrier is
the major one that obstructs completely in all spheres of persons with
disabilities lives. Therefore, I am focusing most of my interventions to change
the non-disabled people's attitudes through social model of disability to bring
a sustainable change in the society. As done in South Korea to make
participation of non-disabled persons, currently, I'm starting to provide
training on "Disability and Development" since October 2013 to
the newly graduated and post-graduate students without having disabilities who
wish to pursue their professional career in social sector towards creating a history
of inclusive society bringing a sustainable change in lives of persons with
disabilities.
My
vision is to contribute significantly to create an inclusive society where all
kinds of persons with disabilities can live their dignified and respected lives
without any sorts of discrimination and disparities. Since disability is an
evolving concept, it has never been made academic discourse yet in Nepal and as
well as most of the countries in the world. Therefore, I am planning to conduct
"Disability Dialogue for Inclusive Society [D2IS]" where all
sorts of people can have an extensive debate and discourse to understand it
thoroughly. Under this project, I'm planning to execute firstly establishing
disability dialogue centre, secondly academic discourse on disability and
thirdly establishing national disability resource centre as a library. After
all that, I envision that none of the people will see at person's disability
rather they will just concentrate on his/her ability.
Finally,
there is one famous saying by Mahatma Gandhi "Your beliefs become your
thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your
actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become
your DESTINY..." Therefore, never give up your hope and loose the
confidence because we will certainly win the world one day. And, everybody will
just come to you, embrace you and will say you "WE ALL ARE EQUAL".
Wow, I am speechless- I salute u and honor u- hope to visit u when i am in nepal next week,,,
ReplyDeleteHi, where are you these days? how are you doing? How is everything at this situation?
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