Faisalabad: August 31, 2015. (PCP) A consultation meeting was convened by Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) around the theme ‘Building an Inclusive and Accessible Society’ at Unity hall in Faisalabad on 21 August 2015. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the challenges faced by WWDs while accessing the reserved facilities in general and job reserved quota in specific. Besides, the said meeting was also aiming to urge the authorities to remove the bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining the registration process and making the disability concerned departments accessible. This meeting was joined by the Social Welare & Bait-ul-Maal, Parliamentarian of Punjab Assembly, Hayat Foundation, Beacon Foundation for Visually Impaired, Society of Disabled People for Rights and Development, Lyallpur Development Organization, Hyat Foundation and Women with Disabilities. Dr. Najma Afzal, Member of the Provincial Assembly PML-N, said, “People with disabilities are the fundamental part of our society and state is responsible to protect their rights. “The Punjab Government has introduced and announced different policies and schemes for the persons with disabilities and still in the process to enhance the visibility and acceptance of persons with disabilities,” she added. She pledged, “The issues of persons with disabilities in general and women with disabilities in specific will be raised on the floor of the house. A consultation meeting with provincial departments and members of standing committee of Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal should be arranged to seek the cooperation and support in the house.” Naseem Anthony, Program Director AWAM, said, “There exists prejudice towards persons with disabilities which makes them more marginalized and make them feel their disability a curse.” He further said, “The social acceptance of persons with disabilities is only possible by ensuring accessibility of infrastructure and social model that will create a disability friendly environment.” He demanded, “It is imperative to introduce new legislation and policies with strong implementation machinery in the light of CRPD for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.” Shazia George, Project Coordinator AWAM, said, “Though the disability is not the issue of many mainstream right-based organization however the campaigns initiated by the different people globally and locally, to some extent, succeeded to grab the attention of different stakeholders.” She suggested, “Women with disabilities, who are facing the triple discrimination due to their sex, poverty and disability, should join hands to amplify their voice for the equal rights and opportunities.” She demanded, “Government should respect the international commitments and translate the commitments into domestic legislation to empower the women folk including women with disabilities.” Mohammad Tahir Chaudary, Social Welfare & Bait-ul-Maal, said, “The Punjab Government increased 2% reserved quota to 3% to accommodate more and more persons with disabilities into employment” “The announcement of the Khidmat Card is also good gesture of the provincial government to provide the financial assistance to persons with disabilities,” he added. He also briefed, “The facilitation desk to facilitate the persons with disabilities has been established aims to facilitate not only the persons with disabilities but all the people who need the information about the persons with disabilities.” He admitted, “The required efforts are not put to publicize the good practices and aware the masses about the facilities due to financial constraints.” He demanded, “The civil society organization should join hands with the state institutions and play an effective role to raise awareness among the rural masses about the governmental facilities” “There is not sufficient human and finance resource at the bureau responsible to process the registration of persons with disabilities that create problems for the persons with disabilities obtaining disability registration certificate,” he added. Shumail Shahzad, scholar woman with disability, said, “Women with disabilities being educated still facing the injustices in reserved facilities for persons with disabilities as the mechanism is so tough to have all the facilities.” She demanded, “The announcement of the facilities for the persons with disabilities also needed a comprehensive and strong implementation mechanism to ensure the easy access to the facilities.” Mishaal, Clinical Psychologist of Hyat Foundation, said, “There is need to adopt preventive measures to avoid disability ratio by early detection system. Promoting the inclusive education there must be a special arrangement in the building of school to examine the children to identify their disabilities and special needs.” Rabia Warriach, Clinical Psychologist, appreciated duty bearers and said, “The moves of the state institutions towards persons with disabilities are appreciable but the publicity and advertisement of the facilities is imperative to make aware more and more persons with disabilities by using all the mediums in hand. The process to obtain these facilities should be easy and simple to increase the number of beneficiaries.”